Hidden Hero: Crimson the Glitch
by gameprincezz
Summary: After Turbo sneaks into Sugar Rush, while changing the code, he releases a real glitch into Sugar Rush named Crimson Crunch. Crimson must learn to survive in Sugar Rush as a glitch and earn respect from the racers who used to make fun of her.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Start

_Click_

"Is it plugged in, Sir?"

A man wearing a referee shirt nods his head as his stands up and backs away from the surge protector.

"Yes, this is the first racing game I've bought in while."

"What other racing games have you bought in the past?" The mechanic asks.

"It was a while ago, around when I first opened this place in 1982. I bought a game called Turbotime. It was so popular among the kids. But after I got another racing game, Roadblasters in 1985, both games malfunctioned and I had to send old Turbotime and the new game, Roadblasters out to the pasture. Since the incident, I haven't bought another racing game since. Let's hope this new game works; the kids will love it."

"Okay, Stan."

Mr. Litwak walked over to the new racing game that was pink in color. It had flashing lights on the sides of the colorful screen. On the screen showed a girl with black hair covered with candy. She was wearing a white racing-suit and she was racing in a white kart with a crown on the front. Below the nine-year old girl, flashed _0/2 credits: $0.50._

Mr. Litwak got two quarters out of his coin belt and placed them in the machine in the coin slot next to a button labeled $0.50.

The screen changed from _0/2 credits_ to _1/2 credits_. After Mr. Litwak placed his second quarter in the machine, the screen changed from _1/2 credits_ to _2/2 credits_. The bottom words changed to _Start!_

Mr. Litwak pressed the button in the center of the steering wheel. The game screen changed to a screen of nine racers. The top read _'Chews Your Racer'_. Mr. Litwak chose a racer and began to play the game.

After three laps around the track, Mr. Litwak got in second place playing as Taffyta Muttonfudge. "The characters really give you a run for your money." He replied, slightly upset that he didn't win the race. Even though he didn't win, he couldn't deny that the game was really fun. "The game works, I'm sure the kids will love it." Mr. Litwak said as he stood up and left the game.

Many kids ran over to the game, wanting to the next one to play the colorful, candy-themed racing game.

For the next couple of hours, Sugar Rush was played non-stop. Every kid wanted to play the new game of 1997.

A couple hours later, Mr. Litwak walked over to the line of kids waiting to play the new game.

"I'm closing up shop. I'll let you kids have one more game before I'll have to kick you out for closing time."

"Awwwwwwwww..." The kids complained.

"One more game." Mr. Litwak said as he started to walk away. "Don't worry kids; the game will be there again tomorrow."

"Okay." Some of the kids agree.

After the last race is finished, Mr. Litwak cleans up his arcade, locks the door and leaves.

"All clear." A random video game character yells out to all the other video game characters.

All the video game characters began leaving their posts.

In Sugar Rush, the racers hopped out of their karts.

"Great first day of racing, everyone." The princess happily said.

All the racers clap their hands in honor of the first day.

"Tomorrow, we will have nine new racers on the roster."

"Who?" Swizzle Malarkey asked.

Vanellope put her finger under her lip and thought to herself. "I hadn't thought of that. Maybe, we can just pick by random draw?"

"Can't we just race to decide the new roster?" Taffyta questioned.

"I guess..." Vanellope decided.

"Then, let's get this race started. I can't wait to be on the roster _again_, for the _second _time in a row." Taffyta replied selfishly.

"Okay, Taffyta. Make sure to stay sweet, when I kick your butt." Vanellope trash-talked her friend.

"You're on." Taffyta said, challenging Vanellope to winning first place at the Random Roster Race.

Vanellope, Taffyta and all the other racers got into their karts and got ready for the race. A countdown began as all the racers sat patiently at the starting line.

_3..._

_2..._

_1..._

…_GO!_

All the racers were off and the fight began for first place.

A distance away, at the very top of the rainbow taffy bridge was a racer wearing a white racesuit along with a white helmet with a big red T on it. He brushed some of the dirt off of his favorite racesuit.

"It wasn't easy getting inside here, but I was finally able to do it. So, Litwak finally decided to purchase another racing game. Let's see what's my new home is going to be like."

Turbo walked down the rainbow taffy bridge and reached the brown sugar dirt at the ground.

"This is Sugar Rush? All the bright colors are kind of annoying. Also, that darn theme song! I hate that song; that is one thing I know. I can't listen to that irritating theme song all the time even _if_ my life depended on it. But besides that, the place looks pretty turbotastic."

A blast of wind comes towards Turbo's direction. A few racers race past him on the racetrack. None of the racers even noticed he was standing there.

_'Turbotastic! I can't wait to race again.'_

He walked over on the side of the racetrack and followed his way to the starting line.  
He saw groups of candy fans in boxes cheering for their certain racer. In the center of the boxes full of candy-people was a popcorn box with the letters VVS written in cursive.

"I can't wait for this all to be mine." Turbo said giddily. _'Now, where would that coderoom be?'_ He wondered. _'The racetrack? The stands? No, that's too obvious._' He looked around the candy-coated game. He turned around and then, a light bulb went off in his head. _'Of course, the only logical place for the coderoom is inside the castle.'_

He scurried off in the direction of the sugar castle that sat on top of a tall hill. He stared at the castle and it made him full of joy. "I've waited so long for this moment and now, it's here."

He walked up to the castle door and knocked like any normal person would do.

The door opened up just a crack.

"Yes." A monotone voice answered.

Turbo was looking for the source of the voice, but he looked downwards seeing a sour green cough drop by the door.

"Who are you?" Turbo questioned.

He answered, "I'm Sour Bill, the princess's assistant."

"Good...good." Turbo muttered.

"What's good?" Sour Bill wondered without a single hint of curiosity in his voice.

Turbo picked the sour green ball off of the ground and stared directly into his eyes.

"_You._ You are going to show me the coderoom whether you like it or not." He replied in a completely serious tone.

"I'm not going to help you." Sour Bill denied Turbo's request.

Turbo thought of what he could use as blackmail. "If you _don't_, I will lick you. Then, whenever I _do_ find the coderoom, I'll delete your code."

Sour Bill frowned and said, "You wouldn't."

"Oh yeah? Well, I'm the greatest racer and virus ever. Yes, you heard me said _virus_."

Sour Bill moved back alarmed. "Oh no."

"Yes, I need to go to coderoom. Now, let's start over again, shall we? Where can I find the coderoom?"

He put Sour Bill back down on the ground.

"Sir, it's over here." He said as he began walking over near the throne. He walked behind the throne and pulled the curtain aside. "Here."

Turbo went down the hallway hidden by the curtain.

"Perfect...perfect." He said as he walked up to the game console door.  
He reached into the pocket of his racesuit and pulled out a napkin from Tapper's with writing on it. Then, he began pressing the buttons into the game console. "Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start."

The door opened up and Turbo's eyes widened with excitement. "The coderoom, the sweet life and blood of the game." He said amazed as he walked into the dark room full of codes. He started floating away in the vault. "Hey, Sour Bill."

"Hmmm...Yes?" He said in a drowsy tone.

"Toss me a rope!" Turbo commanded. He was starting to lose control of where he was going and he started floating away.

"Okay." Sour Bill said as he turned around and searched for a rope.

"_Anything._ Anything will work, just toss me something that I can tie around my waist." Turbo yelled.

The only thing Sour Bill could find was a roll of licorice. "I guess this will have to do." He said as he picked up the roll of licorice. He tossed it over to the racer who was floating around in the code vault. "Here."

Turbo caught the rope in his hands. Then, he tied the red licorice rope around his waist as fast as he could, so he could stop wondering around the space-like area.

"There." He replied, accomplished as he finished tying the rope around his waist.

_'So far, so good. I, Turbo, the greatest racer ever, will now be the ruler of Sugar Rush. Not that little irritating candy-hair girl. But what should I call myself here? I can't use my __**real**__ name; too many people know who I am. King...something. I'll figure out my name out later.'_

He floated over to the codes inside the coderoom. He looked at all the codes as he passed by them. He stopped when he spotted the game's leader. How did he know who was the game's leader? He could tell because under the section of racers, there was only one character with the word _'princess'_ in the name. The racer was Princess Vanellope Von Schweetz. He swarm over to the codebox and pulled out some of the wires out from the top.

_'There sure is a heck of a lot of wires.'_

He kept pulling more and more wires out of the codebox.

_'Any time now.'_ He thought, growing impatient.

Finally, he finished and pushed Vanellope's codebox to the side. He changed the title on her codebox to just Vanellope Von Schweetz. He didn't need another royalty spoiling his plans.

He swarm over to the side of the game and tapped a codebox labeled _'Deleted'_.  
The codebox opened up with a bunch of random different files. Some of the files were of old deleted racer designs, old kart designs, racetracks and basically anything candy-related.

Turbo pushed some buttons and pulled out an old deleted design. He also pulled out a random codebox. He closed the codebox titled _'Deleted'_ and swam back over to where Vanellope's codebox used to be located. He plugged in a blank codebox he found under the _'Deleted'_ codebox to the wires that used to be connected to Vanellope's code.

He tapped the codebox and deleted all of the contents to make sure the codebox was completely empty. Then, once the codebox was empty, a search bar appeared on the screen. Turbo knew what it meant; he had been studying code for a while now. He had to type in a character code. What is a character code? It is a code given to every character and every object inside the game. That was how you programmed characters, objects or locations into the game.

Turbo began typing on the on-screen keyboard. He typed _'Turbo'_ into the search bar. He tapped _'enter'_ and the codebox began loading information. The codebox began processing information and it read _'Loading...'_ as it loaded information from Turbo's code into it.

"Loading complete." a voice spoke aloud.

The word _'Loading'_ disappeared and the codebox was now labeled _'Turbo'_ with many files inside.

"Perfect, a codebox. Now, all I have to do is a couple things. I have to change my name, appearance, personality and every possibly trace that King... King Candy is me, the greatest racer ever!"

Turbo began changing his codebox rapidly. He changed his appearance to look like he was a candy themed character from the Japanese racing game. He also edited his statistics and changed some minor details about his code before he left the coderoom as a completely new person; King Candy.

He was greeted by Sour Bill, his new assistant. "Sir, were you careful? If you change the code of the game too much, it could trigger an error or even a glitch." Sour Bill warned him.

Turbo just waved him off, "No, of course _that_ didn't happen. But, you _do_ give me an idea."

"What it is about?" Sour Bill wondered.

"I'll tell you about that later. For now, it's time to go to the racetrack and do the one thing I love to do; race." With that said, King Candy and Sour Bill walked away from the coderoom, passed the throne and left the castle.

Inside the coderoom, near the deleted files box, a new codebox started to form. Many pieces of code formed the small purple box. After the box was created, a title labeled the box. The name on the codebox read _'Crimson Crunch'_.

_'Uploading...'_ The box read as it began placing data inside the codebox. As soon as the box finished loading, it read _'Loading Complete'._

**Author's Note: So, that's the end of chapter 1. This chapter and the next chapter are prologue. But, what or who is this character 'Crimson Crunch'? Please review :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note:**

**Arc of Carona: I don't mind if you decide to name your Wreck it Ralph OC Crimson. As long as your OC is not a complete copy of my OC, I do not mind.**

Chapter 2: Fitting in

_Blink_

All she remembered was flashing into existence. She blinked a couple times and looked down at her appearance. She was wearing a dark red shirt underneath a red and white striped racing jacket. She also wore a maroon skirt with that had a lot small rips on the edge. To top off the look, she wore pink stockings with red boots. Along with her outfit, she had long straight blonde hair with red streaks and messy bangs. Under her left eye, she had a mark of two diamonds.

She looked back up."Is this Sugar Rush?" She asked aloud.

The sound of kart engines roared in the background.

"I'm going to take that as a yes." She answered herself. "I probably should get going to the racetrack. The gamers won't like seeing that a character is gone."

With that said, she started walking towards the starting line. She saw groups of candy people cheering for the racers. In the middle of the group of candy was a box that read KC.

_'KC? What is that supposed to stand for? Some type of candy?'_ She curiously wondered. _'I don't know, but I should probably head to the racetrack and get in my kart.'_

She started slowly walking over to the racetrack and saw the karts lined up in a couple rows.

"Now, where's my kart?" She whispered as she stood in the center of the starting line gazing over at the rows of karts. Her eyes scanned each row to see if her programmed kart was anywhere to be seen.

While she stood on the starting line, a girl with short white hair wearing a pink-themed racesuit walked up to her.

"Hey, who are you?" She asked in a sweet tone as she stood behind her.

Crimson turned around to face the strawberry-themed racer. "I'm Crimson. Crimson Crunch to be exact."

"Where _exactly_ did you come from? I don't remember seeing you earlier at the Random Roster Race."

Crimson pondered an answer to the girl's question for a moment until she guessed on an answer. "I don't remember. I kind of just appeared in the Candy Cane Forest."

The girl decided to change questions. "Hey, have you seen a nine year-old girl with black hair filled with candy wearing a mint green hoodie with a Reese peanut butter skirt?"

Crimson shook her head. "No, I haven't seen her. Why are you looking for her?"

The girl decided to avoid her question and respond, "Oh it's not important."

"Okay, by the way, who are _you_?"

"Oh, I'm sorry for not properly introducing myself." She apologized. "I'm Taffyta Muttonfudge, the best racer in the game..._well_ next to King Candy."

"Okay." Crimson nodded. "Nice to meet you." She replied smiling as she held her hand out to the strawberry-themed racer.

Taffyta held her hand out, shaking hands with Crimson. Little did she know that the small movement caused Crimson to glitch.

Taffyta pulled away from the girl and at the top of her lungs she screamed out. "GLITCH! King Candy, there's another glitch!"

King Candy along with Wynnchel and Duncan ran over to where Taffyta and Crimson were standing. Crimson just stood in front of Taffyta, confused.

_'Glitch? What...I'm not a glitch. Even if I was, why is everyone so scared of me? It's not like I did anything wrong. I just don't understand.'_

King Candy arrived and was surprised to seeing the girl not even running away. "Um...Taffyta, are you sure that you saw this girl glitch? She's not even moving."

Taffyta answered the King firmly. "Yes, I saw her; she was glitching like a maniac! I am not going to let our game get unplugged by some silly _glitch_ in the program."

King Candy nodded and said, "Wynnchel, Duncan, you are to take this _glitch_ to my castle. We don't need _another_ error in the game."

Wynnchel and Duncan grabbed a hold of Crimson arms, which caused her to snap out of her thoughts.

"Hey, let me go! Can somebody please explain to me what I did wrong?" She struggled from the grip of the donut cops.

She however was unable to escape. As the two guards pulled her away to the castle, she glared at Taffyta until she was out of sight.

_'That girl, Taffyta, is such a traitor. She might say 'stay sweet', but she really is a sour, rotten girl. I don't understand what's so terrible about being a glitch, even if I am one. Someday, that Taffyta girl will get it. Someday, she'll probably end up having to look up to me instead of thinking I'm just a mistake. One day, I will be more important to the game than everyone thinks. You know what? I don't care what everyone thinks; I'll just leave and be a glitch in peace.'_

Wynnchel and Duncan arrive at the castle, open the chocolate door and go inside with their hostage in hand.

King Candy was already inside the castle as the door opened. He left the two cops to the dirty work while he had a few tasks he had to do around the castle.

"We caught her." Wynnchel said proudly as he, along with his partner, dragged the girl inside against her will.

"Milk my duds! Another glitch?" King Candy said as he walked up to Crimson until their faces were literally inches away from each other. "What's your name?" He asked in a completely serious tone.

The girl tried to back away as far as she possibly could and replied, "My name is Crimson Crunch."

King Candy placed his fingers on his chin, thinking.

_'Another glitch? Isn't that bratty ex-princess girl supposed to be the only one? I guess I should lock this girl up in the Fungeon; I don't need another glitch messing up my plan.'_

"Guards!" He shouted. "Lock this _glitch_ in the Fungeon!" He ordered.

The guards grabbed a hold of Crimson's wrists again. She shook the guards' hands away and ran up to King Candy with a desperate need of an answer to a question.

"King, before you take me away and lock me in the Fungeon, I need to know the answer to something."

King Candy gave the girl a face that showed _'What the heck do you want?'_

"I've been wondering...why are glitches so bad? Honestly, I don't understand why you plan to lock me up if I didn't do anything wrong."

King Candy smiled and answered, "The reason is because of the other glitch in this game named Vanellope Von Schweetz. She causes the game enough havoc to get this game unplugged _alone_. We don't need another error in the game messing around, being the cause of the game getting unplugged, now do we?"

"No, but I won't be like that other glitch." She said standing up for herself. "I wouldn't cause the game a single problem if you just let me go and let me race."

King Candy shook his head. "Sorry, but I'm afraid little girl that rules are rules and _no_ glitch is allowed to race, _ever_. Do you hear me?"

She sighed and nodded.

"Guards! Proceed with the order. Take the glitch to the Fungeon!" King Candy ordered.

The two donut cops got a hold of Crimson and dragged her out of the room.

"It hasn't been a pleasure." King Candy finished.

"You're right. It hasn't been a pleasure." Crimson snapped back as she was dragged out of the room by the two donut cops.

Wynnchel and Duncan carried Crimson out of the room and down a flight of stairs leading to the Fungeon in the basement of the castle. They lead her through the hallway and into the very last room at the end of the hallway. It had a thick solid chocolate door, which was the strongest door in the whole palace. The reason was that King Candy needed a sturdy room to make sure glitches could not get out. The two candy cops pushed open the strong chocolate door and dragged the glitch inside. They grabbed a hold of the strong steel chain that was connected to the walls and locked it around Crimson's waist.

"There. The glitch should be out of our way for good." Wynnchel replied accomplished.

With that said, Duncan added, "Well let's get out of here."

Wynnchel nodded his head in agreement and both left the room slamming the door hard right in front of her face.

_'Well, my first day as a racer didn't go as I expected. I've been told that I apparently am a glitch; a mistake in the program. Even though there is another glitch out there, it doesn't mean I'm the same way. I mean even though I am a glitch like the other glitch, it doesn't mean we are the same or are alike. She might be evil for all I know. If only I could get out of here...'_

She looked around the room and didn't see any possible way to break the chains.

"It's hopeless; I'll never get out of here." She replied sadly while losing all of her hope.

She plopped down hard on the stone ground in defeat. Which little did she know or cared, triggered a glitch through her body.

Then, realization struck her.

"Wait a minute... maybe I can use the same reason I came here as the same reason I can leave."

She stood up and held out her arm and grabbed a hold of one of the chains that surrounded her. She closed her eyes and focused.

_'All I have to do is glitch. That's all I have to do. Glitch...'_

She took in a deep breath and cringed as she tried hard to use her energy to glitch.

_Glitch_

She was able to do it. She slightly opened one of her eyes to see if her glitching was the tiniest bit of beneficial to her. All of the other chains that surrounded her combined into one chain that she was holding.

"Did I just combine the chains when I glitched?" She asked confused. A smile came across her lips. "At least being a glitch isn't one-hundred percent terrible; it's only ninety-nine percent."

_'If I can glitch to get rid of all but one chain, I will probably be able to glitch out of here.' _She realized. She let go of the chain and sat back down on the hard cold ground. She closed her eyes in concentration of her glitching ability. _'You can do this.'_ She encouraged herself. She focused hard and felt another glitch ripple through her body. She felt the metal chain around her waist loosen until it snapped in half.

She heard the chain crash down onto the ground and she opened both of her eyes to see the chain lying on the ground in front of her. She stood up as soon as she could and ran towards the big solid chocolate door that locked the room. She placed her hand on the chocolate doorknob and tried to turn it for verification that the door couldn't be opened. She turned and turned and couldn't get the door to bust.

She turned around and looked around the room. _'There's got to be a key or something in this room.'_ She examined the room and all she saw was the broken chain that lied on the floor and something in the very back of the room that looked shiny.

"What's that?" She asked aloud as she began creeping towards the shiny object in the back left corner of the cell. As she walked closer to the object, she realized what the object she saw was.

It was a sword. The silver blade of the sword was slowly beginning to rust, but the sword looked great for being down in the Fungeon for a while. She picked up the sword with the fading dark red handle and stared at the mostly shiny blade.

"This could work." She replied happy with what she luckily happened to find.

She rushed back over to the door and grinned.

_'First thing I'm going to do when I get out of psycho king baldy-barf-face's castle, I'm going to leave this bitter game and go to somewhere where I will be appreciated.'_

She gritted her teeth and used her newly found sword and stabbed the chocolate door to get her anger out. "That son of a gun, that lollipop-licking loser who loves winning trapped me in here and thinks that I'm as useless as a gum wrapper. News flash for that idiot; I'm not useless and unimportant. One day, I'll be useful and as important as everyone else. _Actually_, I plan to be _more_ important than everyone else." After she finishes talking, she takes her sword out again and stabs the door a couple more times until a section of the door breaks off and falls onto the side of the door.

_'That's probably enough for me to be able to get through.'_ She thought successfully.  
She pulled her sword out of the door and held it at her side. Then, she began to slowly walk backwards.

_'Okay, I can do this.'_ She encouraged herself. She took a deep breath and charged towards the opening in the chocolate door. As she went through the door, pieces of chocolate shattered everywhere. _'I'm getting out of here whether King barf-face and his army of candy followers like it or not.' _

As soon as she smashed through the door, she landed on her feet and started remembering the exit of the palace. _'First, I'll have to sneak by that grumpy idiotic barf-face king. Then, I need to sneak out using the front door of the castle and run until I get to the exit of the game. Lastly, I can leave this piece-of-junk game.'_

Crimson heard guards question a sound they heard. "What was that?" one of the guards asks.

_'The guards must have heard me. I have to get out here, now.'_ She thought urgently before she raced out of the hallway up a flight of stairs.

She opened up the door that led to the palace and the two donut cops saw her.

"Hey it's that glitch!" Duncan said to the guards.

"The glitch?" King Candy asked. "Seize her!" He commanded his guards.

All the guards ran up near the door.

Crimson freaked out at the sight of the guards surrounding her and bit her lip.

_'How the heck am I going to escape now?'_

Freaking out, she just started running, bumping into Oreo guards as she did. She wasn't sure what the heck she was doing, as long as she was able to escape from King Candy and his minions.

"Stop her! Stop that glitch!" King Candy ordered as he pointed to the girl who was currently running on top of the Oreo guards. Most of the Oreo guards that she happened to step on were broken and lying on the sugar-filled ground.

King Candy just watched helplessly as all of his guards got defeated one by one.

"Fine, if my guards can't do their jobs, I _will_." He said as he began to approach the girl, avoiding Oreos while doing so.

The only problem with his plan was that he was just a little too late. When he reached the spot Crimson was standing, she was already out the door.

King Candy turned back around to face his candy guards. His teeth were clenched together and he did not look happy.

_'Oh course; I get an army that can't do anything right.'_ He thought irritated.

"You ding dongs; that was a piece of cake! I can't believe you got defeated so easily. Now thanks to you, we have _two_ glitches to deal with. Whenever I will successfully be able to catch both of them, you will have to be able to do your jobs _correctly_. For now, I have to go because in a couple hours the arcade will open again and _I_ am on roster." He yelled at his guards before he left the room.

Crimson, on the other hand, was running at full speed away from the castle towards the rainbow taffy road that appeared to lead up to the exit of the game.

_'All I need to do is go up there and leave this junky game. I can't wait until I get up there. I'll finally be able to get away from everyone here who thinks of me just only as a mistake.'_

She approached the rainbow bridge and rushed up to the top. A smile spread across her lips. "I'm finally going to leave." She replied excitedly as she started to slowly walk towards the game's exit.

She continued walking until she felt herself run into something that pushed her back in the opposite direction.

"Huh?" She asked confused. "What the heck was that?"

She walked back up to the imaginary barrier that didn't let her leave. She put her hands up to it and glitched.

"Why isn't this working?" She asked frustrated. "Why can't I leave?" She questioned as she started to try and beat up the barrier with her sword.

"That's because you're a glitch. Glitches can't leave their games." She heard an annoying voice answer.

She turned around with tears rolling down her face to see who the person was. It was the one and only, King Candy.

"What the heck do you want? Leave me alone! All I want to do is leave this game and everything about it, including _you_. I've always couldn't stand you; you've never given me and chance to do anything right. Why the heck can't I leave here?" She replied furiously.

"Because honey, you're a glitch in the program. Glitches can't leave their games and a glitch is all you will ever be."

Crimson turned around from the barrier to face the king of the game. Out of anger, her right hand formed a fist. Then, she punched the king right in the face causing him to fly backwards and away from her.

"I'm not afraid of anything. Well, I'm a glitch; so be it? If I can't leave the game now I guess I'll have to do the second best thing; which is to go live somewhere far away in Sugar Rush. One day, I will be able to leave. I will leave and see what's beyond this game. But for now, I'm going to go to my new home."

With that said, she jumped off the side of the rainbow bridge to avoid meeting up again with King Candy. As soon as she landed, she started running, in search for a new home in the game full of sweets.

"I'm going to be more than just a glitch or error in the program. Someday, I'll get to be able to leave. I know I will."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The Present

**Author's Note: I know it's been a while since my last chapter and I just wanted to say sorry for having to make you guys wait so long. For a long period of time(mostly during the month of June) I was unmotivated to write any of my stories and I got lazy. But now I'm back with a new chapter of Hidden Hero: Crimson the Glitch. So with that said, enjoy the chapter :)**

15 Years Later...

Vanellope was walking alongside Ralph after a Random Roster Race that took place that night.

"...and Ralph, at the very last moment I just glitched on by her, winning the race in first!" Vanellope exclaimed excitedly.

It has been only two weeks since Vanellope was allowed to race again and she loved every moment of it.

"Yeah, kid." Ralph briefly said as a response. He wanted to let Vanellope know that he was still listening to her story about the Random Roster Race that took place about an hour or so ago.

"Now, since that imposter King Candy or whoever left, everything is great in Sugar Rush." Vanellope added calmly.

"Like you being princess?" Ralph asked.

"President." Vanellope corrected.

"Right, President Fart-feathers."

"Yeah-yeah." Vanellope waved him off. "The only thing that isn't perfect is that no one understands me."

"What?" Ralph was confused what she meant by that. "But I understand you kid. If you don't count me, you have Felix, Calhoun and all those Sugar Rush kids."

"I know..." Vanellope started, "...but I mean I'm the only person I know with the ability to glitch and I think it would be cool to...you know, finds someone else that also glitches like me."

"I don't know kid..." He didn't exactly know what to say. He didn't want to upset her saying that it wasn't possible, but he didn't want her to keep thinking about this.

"I know you, Stinkbrain." Vanellope replied. "You probably think this idea of mine is stupid, but you have to hear me out on this one. I don't know if it's your bad breath that's just clouding up your brain, but please support me on this dream of mine."

"Ok." He agreed.

'_Hopefully she won't be disappointed if she doesn't happen to find another glitch just like her.'_

"Good." Vanellope added with a grin as the two continued wandering around Sugar Rush.

Eventually the two arrive at an area in the very corner of Sugar Rush.

"Vanellope, what the heck is that?" Ralph spoke his thoughts aloud as he pointed to what appeared to be a house of some sort.

The house was right next to a cave made out of hollow chocolate that looked like it was full of rock-candy on the inside.

But the house itself looked pretty nice compared to Vanellope's old home in Diet Cola Mountain. It was made out peppermint bark for the walls of the house with pieces of red ribbon candy glued to it with frosting. The roof of the house appeared to be made out thick solid white chocolate with red M&amp;M's stuck it for shingles. In front of the house stood a sign that read _'Crackle Crunch'_.

"What do you think this place is?" Ralph asked.

"I know I've wandered around Sugar Rush a lot before I was actually allowed to race, but I don't think I've _ever_ seen this place before." She answered.

"Well I guess that means we better go check this place out. We don't need another intruder in your game."

"Well...a _bad_ intruder." Vanellope corrected as she looked up at Ralph, referring to him who technically _'intruded'_ Sugar Rush. "Let's go check this place out." Vanellope added as she glitched over by the front of the house. She turned around to see Ralph still close to the top of the hill they were standing on before."Come on Ralph, move your molasses!" She complained to her friend about being slow.

"Okay Vanellope. You _know_ I can't just glitch to the bottom and be as quick as you."

"Fine, I'll wait for you if you don't take _forever_ to get down here."

Ralph slowly and carefully climbed down from the hill towards the bottom where Vanellope was standing.

Vanellope yawned to show Ralph that she was growing impatient.

"I could just go in there by myself." Vanellope responded, drawing up a solution.

"No, you're not." Ralph firmly answered. "You have no clue who or what could be in that house. For as far as we know, it could be Turbo in there."

"Uhhh...Ralph, first things first, I'm in my _own_ game, so if I died I would regenerate. Second, Turbo is dead. It can't be _him_ in there because there's _no way_ he could've survived an explosion in a _different_ game other than his own. You got it?"

Ralph looked to the ground and answered, "I just don't want my friend getting hurt that's all. The thing is we have no clue what could be in that building."

"Look Ralph," Vanellope said as she held onto his hand. "I can handle this." She reassured him.

"Are you sure?" Ralph asked in a worry tone of voice.

"Come on Ralph, I'm _president_ for Laffy-Taffy's sake! If I could handle all those years of bullying from Taffyta and King Barf-a-Roni, I can handle some stranger perfectly fine...and besides can you even fit inside the house?" Vanellope asked, trying not to seem as insulting as she sounded.

Ralph really wanted to go, but he sadly knew she was right and let out a sigh of disappointment before he replied, "Go ahead, President Fart-feathers."

"See you soon, Diaper-breath." Vanellope waved goodbye as she neared the door to the house.

She balled her hand into a fist and knocked twice on the door.

_Nothing._

No one answered the door and Vanellope tried again.

_Knock_

_Knock_

When no one responded to her second round of knocks, she reached out for the doorknob on the door and tried to turn it.

It opened.

Her jaw dropped by the inside of the house.

"Oh my gosh...this house is..."

"What Vanellope?" Ralph asked scared

"This house is...COMPLETELY NICE!" Vanellope finally stated with a grin.

"Vanellope, don't do that to me, you almost gave me a heart attack."

"Scared you huh? Well now I know what makes the diaper baby cry. If only it was on camera...man, your face was _priceless_!" She exclaimed, laughing as she did.

Ralph pouted and decided to start leaving.

"Come on Ralph," Vanellope started, trying to calm Ralph down, "You know I was just playing with you!"

"But, Vanellope, be careful." Ralph replied on an ending note as Vanellope wandered inside the house.

The inside of the house didn't seem even the tiniest bit weird. It just appeared to be like any other house in Sugar Rush; full of furniture made out of candy and sweets.

Vanellope carefully wandered through the house, not seeing anyone in sight.

She walked through the living room, the hallway, bedrooms and ended up at the kitchen in the very back of the house.

Vanellope looked around. It looked like someone was there, just no person was.

"Uhh...hello?" Vanellope asked, wondering if anyone would respond.

No answer.

Vanellope let out a sigh and started to walk around the kitchen. All the food she saw was still okay, not moldy, old or stale.

_'Someone must have been here recently.'_ She realized.

Her eyes divert towards a door very back of the room that she notice before. The house was designed very differently than some of the other houses in Sugar Rush.

_'It must have been created by someone. I've never seen a programmed house like this.'_

Vanellope walked up to the door in the very back of the house and saw it was slightly opened.

Vanellope put her hand on the door and pushed it farther open to see the sun shining down brightly on the backyard of the house.

Vanellope walked outside and looked around to still see no one in sight.

_'Who could've been here?'_ Vanellope thought. She was clearly puzzled by the whole situation.

She had no clues, so how was she ever going to figure this out?

Then, she noticed something; there were footprints in the brown sugar ground. If Vanellope knew something about brown sugar it was that the prints in the ground must have been from not too long ago.

So, Vanellope started to curiously follow the footprints in the ground until she ended up at the cave she noticed earlier.

There was a small opening on the side of the cave that looked like someone broke into the cave. There were many cracks in the chocolate surrounding the opening. Even though it wasn't the front entrance, it _was_ where the footprints stopped.

_'I guess I'm going inside the cave.'_ Vanellope sighed about the change in her path.

So, she walked through the opening arc of the cave and went inside.

The inside of the cave reminded her of the inside of Diet Cola Mountain. It was darkly lit, but there was enough light to be able to see her surroundings.

"Hello...anyone here?" Vanellope asked in a loud voice.

She looked around to see if anyone was in the dark cave and with no luck, she didn't see anyone.

But all of a sudden, she felt something run into her and she fell down and crashed to the ground.

"What the..." She spoke as she looked up and saw a girl's face stare directly at her. The girl appeared to be holding a sword in her hand, pointing it at Vanellope.

"Who are you?" The girl asked in a suspicious tone. "One of King Candy's minions?" She added as she glared down at the intruder.

Vanellope couldn't get up at the current moment because the girl wrestled her down to the ground. One of the girl's hands was on Vanellope wrist and her other hand held her sword, which was pointed at Vanellope to make sure she couldn't go anywhere. But, Vanellope put her hands up in defense.

"No." She defended herself. "My name is President Vanellope Von Schweetz and I'm the leader of this game. Also, for your information, King Candy is dead, just to let you know."

The girl let go of her grip of Vanellope's wrist. The girl stood up, put her sword down and dusted herself off.

"I don't know if I can trust you or not. But you're telling me that jerk-face king is dead? For how long exactly?"

"Well, Stinkbrain and I defeated him two weeks after he went psycho and became part cy-bug." Vanellope tried to explain.

"Wait what?" The other girl asked confused by this new information.

"There was a guy who came to Sugar Rush two weeks ago from another game and his name is Ralph. I call him Stinkbrain for his bad breath that makes me want to puke. _Anyway_, he helped me become a racer and he helped me get that evil imposter get kicked out from being dictator king."

The girl just blinked a couple of times, unsure of how to react to the information.

"Ummm...are you okay?" The girl heard Vanellope ask, snapping her out of her daze.

"Uh...yeah, I guess. My name's Crimson by the way." She introduced herself.

_'Crimson? That's a cool name.'_

"Uhhh...how long exactly have you've been living out here?" Vanellope curiously wondered. _'Has she been here for years? Months? Weeks? Only a day?'_

"Well, what's today's date?"

"November 16, 2012." Vanellope asked.

"2012?" Crimson asked, making sure she heard correctly, her eyebrows rising as she asked that.

"Yep." Vanellope simply answered.

"Oh my gosh..." Crimson started as she started pacing back and forth with her hands onto her face to show that something must be wrong.

"What?" Vanellope asked confused.

"It's 2012!" She yelled back, startling Vanellope, even though she didn't mean to scare her. "I've been here for _fifteen_ years!"

"That long?" Vanellope asked her. "But I've never seen you here before."

"Have you ever been in this section of Sugar Rush?" Crimson abruptly questioned. "I mean it's not like I ever _leave_."

"Huh? Why not?"

"I _can't_ leave. I've been told by that King Loser guy that I can't leave because I'm a glitch. So, I tried to prove him wrong and..."

"Wait, you're a glitch?" Vanellope interrupted.

"Yeah. As I was saying, I tried to prove him wrong and I tried anyway and..."She continued her story, acting like it was no big deal.

"There's another glitch!" Vanellope screamed out with a hint of happiness and relief in her voice.

"Yeah...you say that like it's a _great_ thing." Crimson replied with a roll to her eyes.

"But now there's someone who understands me!" Vanellope excitedly exclaimed. "I've never met another glitch before and I've always wanted to meet someone who understands me." Vanellope happily said throwing her arms around Crimson in an uncalled for manner.

Crimson just felt awkward as Vanellope hugged her. She was never hugged before by anyone. She was just lucky to know what a _hug_ is.

"Are you a glitch too?" Crimson asked curious about the leader of the game.

"Well...yeah, sort-of. Technically, I'm not a _programmed_ glitch, but I don't remember any of the short amount of time when I _wasn't_ a glitch so it feels like I've always been a glitch. King Candy apparently _'tried to delete my code'_ according to Sour Bill which ended up causing me to become a glitch. Maybe it was because my code wasn't complete or something, I don't know. But that King Candy jerk treated me terribly and _he_ was the one responsible for making me a glitch. He didn't let me race _at all_. Also, he convinced all of the other racers to do anything they could to keep me from doing just that."

"So...?" Crimson curiously asked, wondering what happened next.

"Then, I became a racer thanks to Ralph. I later found out that I'm supposedly the leader of this game." Vanellope finished up her story. "What about you? What did _he_ do to you?"

"Well," Crimson started. "He's the reason I'm out here every day and not by the racetrack. I wasn't allowed to race and was picked on by _everybody_. I know as a Sugar Rush racer, I should want to race, I _do_, but that actually didn't bother me that bad. The thing that bothered me the most was that I had _no_ friends once so ever and I was incapable to leave this dump. So, I ran away out here and started training."

"Training for what?" Vanellope interrupted.

Crimson reached down and picked up her sword that she dropped earlier.

"With this, for defense." She answered as she showed off her sword to Vanellope. "Want to swordfight?" Crimson asked with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Sure. But how are we going to swordfight when you only have one sword?"

Crimson smiled and with confidence, answered, "Just leave that up to me."

_Glitch_

Vanellope just watched as Crimson glitched with the sword firmly in her hand.

Vanellope's jaw dropped by what she saw happened.

There were _two_ swords.

_'How can there be two swords? I saw with my own eyes that there was only one.'_

Crimson walked up beside Vanellope and handed her the other sword.

"Here."

Vanellope just stared down at Crimson's hand that held the sword. She knew she just has to grab it from Crimson, bur Vanellope was just shocked by what she saw happen.

"But how?" Vanellope questioned. Her face still showed a look of utter shock and disbelief.

"What?" Crimson asked confused. "You said you're a glitch, right? You can't do that?"

Vanellope shook her head. "I can glitch...but, I can't duplicate or copy stuff like that!"

"Well, when you glitch, what do you do?"

"When I glitch, I teleport."

Crimson's eyebrows rose. "Really? I don't believe you."

Vanellope glitched backwards to prove to Crimson what she could do. Then, a minute or so later, she glitched forward again, back to her original spot.

Crimson clapped her hands together to show that she was impressed by Vanellope's skilled.

"You know I can break stuff too." Crimson replied.

Vanellope shrugged her shoulders. "So can I, actually so can anybody." Then, she corrected herself, "Well, anybody _except_ Felix."

"Who?" Crimson asked confused.

"You must not be kidding about not knowing _anything _about outside the game."

"Yeah..." Crimson answered, embarrassed by how stupid she must seem.

"Anyway, what was that about breaking stuff?" Vanellope decided to change the topic again. She never really got Crimson's full answer before.

"Oh, I can break things in half when I glitch also. But most of the time I just duplicate objects like my sword." She explained.

"Okay." Vanellope nodded her head. "Do you still want to swordfight?"

"Oh course of do! I'm always ready for more training." She responded as she handed Vanellope the other sword.

Vanellope took it from her and started swinging it around as to prepare herself for the fight.

"Go easy on me, okay?" Vanellope begged. She knew if this girl has been training everyday straight for fifteen years, the girl would probably be really good at swordfights.

"Well, I'll try. But then again, I've never trained or fought anyone else before, so this is something new for me too." Crimson answered as she started to back away from Vanellope to prepare herself for the fight.

"In three..."

"Two..."

"One..."

"Go!" Crimson shouted as both she and Vanellope charged at each other from opposite directions.

Vanellope tried to point her sword at Crimson and Crimson blocked the attack.

Vanellope tried again multiple times and Crimson blocked the next couple of attacks from her competitor.

"How exactly do we know when we've won?" Vanellope shouted out while continuing to fight Crimson.

"Either when we get tired of this or when one of us gets poked." She answered through a yell to try and talk over the clanking of the swords.

"Poked? But I don't want to get hurt from this?" Vanellope stated. She wouldn't have agreed if it meant getting harmed.

"Look, what I mean by _'poke'_ is gently touch, not stab." Crimson clarified

Vanellope just simply nodded her head in agreement as the two girls continued to fight.

Crimson's sword kept clashing against Vanellope's sword as both girls walked and stumbled across the ground of the cave. Crimson walked forward while Vanellope moved backwards, ignorant to slowly becoming cornered into the edge of the cave.

Vanellope eyed behind herself as she felt herself close in next to the wall.

"...and poke." Crimson stated in accomplishment as her sword gently touched Vanellope's shoulder.

"I thought you were going to go easy on me." Vanellope complained.

"I did. You see if I went full-out ready to battle, I would've finished you within a few seconds. But after sword-fighting with someone ...I think I really like it." She realized. With a smile, she added, "It's fun."

"Well, you're welcome for the swordfight...I guess. But is that really you when you are _'going easy'_?" Vanellope questioned.

Crimson shrugged and was only able to respond, "I guess...I didn't want to fully give up and lose. I'm not a quitter. After you end up training every day, it becomes hard to lose."

She started to walk away from Vanellope, holding both of the swords as she did so.

It took Vanellope a few minutes to realize that she was leaving. "Hey, wait up!" She begged as she ran over to her new friend to catch up.

By the time she caught up, Crimson was already out of the cave.

"Sweet mother of monkey milk, you move fast!" Vanellope blurted out through deep breaths from all of her running.

Crimson turned around to face Vanellope.

"I didn't know you were following me." She answered innocently. She honestly didn't know the other girl wanted to hang out with her for _even_ longer.

"Well I was." Vanellope argued.

"Sorry." Crimson looked down, ashamed for leaving her behind.

"It's okay." Vanellope reassured her new friend as she patted her on the shoulder.

"So...where are we going?"

"To my house, if you want." Crimson invited her to tag along.

"Sure. Then after can you come with me to the castle, I have a surprise for you."

"The castle?" Crimson obviously had no clue what Vanellope wanted her to go there. Let alone what surprise she would have there.

"Yeah, I got an idea."

"What?" Crimson asked.

"Well, since you're a glitch and all...I thought I'd let you be programmed into the game. All we got to do is fix your code; it worked for me. All I have to do is get Stinkbrain and Hammerhead to help me out. Then, you can become a _real_ racer."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Back in the Game

"I don't know, Vanellope." Crimson worried. Was she really ready to be a racer?

"Come on." Vanellope stated in a convincing manner. "It worked for _my_ code, so it's possible it'll work for _your_ code."

"I wish I could believe that it would work, but I just don't." She muttered glumly as she started to walk back to her house.

"Besides, King Candy is gone now! It's not like he's going to mess up your code and make you a glitch again." Vanellope argued.

She stopped in place and turned around to look Vanellope straight in the eye."I wish I could trust you, but this is my _life_. I can't just become a full racer like you. I'm not secretly a _'princess'_ like you are; I won't gain the other racers' respect."

Vanellope stopped in place and let Crimson continue walking. She was left silent and unsure of how to respond.

"If you _really_ want, you can just forget you met me. I don't want to be a bother to you." She replied with a wave as she left to go back inside her house.

"I don't want to forget you." Vanellope muttered. "How can you say such a thing? Don't you want any friends? A-doy!" She angrily sputtered.

Crimson stopped in place and turned around to hear Vanellope continue to scold her.

"I've always wanted to meet another glitch." Vanellope continued. "But when I finally do, you just want me to forget? I'm not a moron, I'm not just going to leave and _'pretend'_ I never met you. No way Jose is that going to happen."

"Well then, I'm not going to come with you." Crimson amended.

"Why not?" Vanellope begged like the little girl she was.

"Look, first things first, I have some bad memories of the castle. Second, I don't need to be programmed a racer, okay? I couldn't care less. I'm just glad where I am right now."

"You're _glad_ with where you live?" Vanellope asked in shock. "News flash for you, but this doesn't look like the ideal place to live in. You have _no_ friends around here. Don't you ever get lonely? Don't you ever want an adventure besides training? Haven't you ever wanted to use some of that training for the good of Sugar Rush?

Crimson was in defeat. She _knew _Vanellope was right.

She turned around to the face president of the game. With a nod, she answered, "I guess I'm going with you."

Shortly later, Felix and Ralph came and all four characters set out for the castle.

* * *

"So kid, this is the person living in that house you found?" Ralph asked Vanellope as they were walking down the winding path leading to the castle.

"Yeah, her name's Crimson and she's also a glitch. I'm going to try and make her a _real_ racer."

"What?" Ralph said startled as he stumbled forward. "Are you even sure _that_ is going to work?"

"No, not technically..." Vanellope argued. "But come on, it worked for me, Ralph, when I was a glitch. Why won't it work for her?"

"You guys realize I'm standing right here." Crimson muttered. She was standing right beside them and they were talking about her right in front of her face.

"I'm just saying do you know what's going to happen? Since she's an actually glitch in the game, will it _even _work?"

"Only one thing I know is that I'm going to try." Vanellope encouraged.

Not too long after, the four arrive at the sugar-covered castle.

"Well, it looks like we're here." Crimson stated as she looked up to view the tall castle that looked about a hundred feet tall.

"Home sweet home." Vanellope said with a smile. She was glad to be back at her house.

_Knock_

_Knock_

The door opened a small crack before the monotone voice of Sour Bill could be heard.

"Hello? Who is it?" He asked.

"The president of Sugar Rush," She claimed, "along with three guests."

After she answered, Sour Bill pushed the door open farther and the guests were invited inside.

"Hey, Bill of the Bubblegum," Vanellope grabbed his attention as she walked inside. "I need a favor. Can you bring me to the coderoom?"

Sour Bill's eye widened at the last word that fell from Vanellope's mouth. In a whisper, he walked next to her and asked her a serious question.

"Are you sure? The coderoom is very unstable and controls everything inside the game. Even changing the code too much can cause an error, problem or even a glitch to the game."

"Look, don't question me. Okay? I have a plan and I _plan _to be careful. It's for my friend Crimson here." She answered with a head bob over in Crimson's direction. "Trust me, I'm fine."

"Okay, Ms. Schweetz." He responded before he ran over towards the curtain to fulfill his order from the president.

He pulled the pink curtain back to reveal a small metal hallway that led up to a door at the very end of the hallway.

"Your majesty." Sour Bill politely invited her to go down the hallway.

"President to you." She corrected him. "Thank you for showing us the way, anyway."

She walked on passed her assistant and waved the others to come along and follow her.

"Come on you guys! At least Crimson!" Vanellope yelled, growing impatient.

"I'll just stay here out of way so I don't break anything." Ralph said considerately.

"I guess I'll keep Ralph company here. I'll be here if anything goes wrong." Felix replied.

"Okay, then. I guess it's just Crimson and me." Vanellope muttered to herself before she turned to face Crimson. "You're ready?"

"For what? To be a racer, be able to leave the game or go into coderoom?" She asked confused. She wanted clarification.

Vanellope thought about it for a moment before giving an answer. "I guess all of the above. But I meant about going into the coderoom."

"Okay." Crimson replied with a nod of her head. She rushed over to Vanellope's side and started to follow her down the hallway.

Once the two reached the door, Vanellope started to punch in a code onto the game console to open the door to the coderoom.

As soon as the code was entered correctly, the door cracked open and the inside of the coderoom was revealed.

Crimson's eyes lit up with excitement. She never saw the coderoom once in her life and never expected she would ever get to see it.

_'So this is what the coderoom looks like?'_ She wondered. She couldn't believe her eyes. _'Is this where all the codes are stored?'_

While Crimson's eyes glanced around at all of the codes inside the massive room in awe, Vanellope was busy tying the licorice rope around her waist to secure her safety inside the endless room.

"You stay out here and assist me from inside the coderoom." Vanellope instructed.

Crimson listened to what Vanellope wanted her to do and simply nodded her head.

With the nod of Crimson's head, both girls were ready.

Vanellope handed Crimson the opposite end of the black licorice rope and shortly after, jumped into the zero-gravity coderoom.

She swam from codebox to codebox, searching for Crimson's code.

"No...no..."She muttered to herself as she continued to read the title of every codebox.

She swam from section to section, searching for her new friend's codebox.

She searched all over the place. She looked over by the other racers' codeboxes, but she had no luck. Then, she looked around by the section that contained the fans and the many things within the racetrack.

She continued looking around for a while, searching through all the different sections, growing deeper and deeper into the depths of the coderoom until she saw something peculiar in the distance.

"What the heck is that?" She asked aloud.

It was a blinking flashing light that seemed to be towards the very back of the coderoom.

Out of either precaution or curiosity, her curiosity got the best of her and she began floating over to the mysterious light a distance away.

As she grew closer, so did the light.

She had to squint and eventually, close her eyes, to prevent going blind from the random unpredictable flashes of light that were coming from a codebox.

From a distance away, the codebox's beams of light didn't seem that bright; they actually were barely even noticeable.

Even though Vanellope had no clue where the source of the light was coming from, she was drawn to it and continued to swim towards it.

_'Almost there.'_ She thought excitedly.

Then, the flashes of bright light dimmed down enough so she could see the codebox.

"What's this?" She muttered.

The codebox was labeled _'Deleted'_.

Vanellope double-clicked the codebox to open it up.

The box opened up to reveal to be huge. It seemed to be overflowing with data.

"This is some _big_ codebox." Vanellope said amazed at the size. It _had_ to be the biggest codebox in the coderoom.

"Find anything?" Crimson yelled out from a distance away. Apparently, she was just as curious as Vanellope.

"Nothing yet!" Vanellope answered back in a yell. But however, Crimson's hollering at her did have a benefit; she was reminded to stay on task to find Crimson's codebox.

Vanellope scrolled through all the items in the deleted codebox to see if she found anything.

She quickly browsed through it to see if anything caught her eye as suspicious. Most things she just ignored, but a couple things caught her eye.

One item she found in the deleted section appeared to be a kart that reminded her of Crimson's house. It was red and completely made out of ribbon candy except for the red frosting on top. The kart was labeled _'The Crushing Crunch'_ which shared the same part as Crimson's last name of 'Crunch'.

"Hey Crimson! Does the name _'The Crushing Crunch'_ ring a bell?"

Crimson nodded. "Yes, that's my kart!" She answered.

Vanellope nodded.

_'So I must be looking in the right place. Maybe I'll end up finding Crimson's codebox in here.' _She thought to herself as she continued searching through the _'Deleted'_ codebox.

After searching through the whole box of deleted material, she only found a few more items of Crimson's belongings, but no codebox.

_'Where the heck could it be?'_ Vanellope thought in frustration.

She looked frantically, but something caught her eye that she missed before.

It was a name. A name that belonged to an evil person who brought back horrible memories into Vanellope's mind.

The name that was listed was titled _'King Candy'_ or otherwise known as Turbo, the king of game-jumping. No one really knew why he game-jumped so much, but all people could do was assume reasons why he did it. He never clarified anything, including why he loved to bully the leader of the Sugar Rush so much. All everyone knew was that they would never receive their answer from him, since he was dead.

Vanellope was angrily thinking about King Candy's reign and ended up ignoring everything that was right in front of her, including a floating codebox off to her right side.

Crimson couldn't see much from a distance away, but she hadn't either seen or heard from Vanellope in a while so she started to wonder and get curious.

_'Where is she? I haven't seen her in a while.'_

"Hey Vanellope! Are you done yet?" Crimson yelled out from a distance away.

Vanellope snapped out of her train of thought and decided to answer back to her friend.

"I'm looking for your codebox. I haven't found it yet, it's like a Smartie in a lollipop-stack."

"Okay...hopefully you can find it soon, then." Crimson added.

Vanellope nodded and started to get back to her original task.

She continued to scroll through the deleted material once more until the floating codebox caught her eye this time.

_'That seems suspicious.'_ She initialed thought as she started to swim towards the skeptical codebox.

Once she reached the codebox, she read the name across it and a grin came across her face.

The codebox was labeled _'Crimson Crunch'_.

_'Yes! I found it!'_ Vanellope thought, thrilled about her achievement in her quest.

"Okay..." Vanellope muttered to herself to calm down and focus. This was important and she didn't want to miss vital information because she was too wound up or on a literal 'sugar rush'.

Vanellope double tapped the codebox to open the codebox up with all of Crimson's data.

She carefully examined the contents of the codebox, but she was confused.

_'Hmmmmm...how is she a glitch then?'_ Vanellope wondered, unsure of what was wrong with her code.

Then, an idea popped in her head.

_'Maybe it's not in the codebox's data; maybe it's with the section of the coderoom and the location of the codebox.'_ She figured that had to reason why Crimson was a glitch. The codebox wasn't _even_ close to the other racers. But why was that?

Then, Vanellope wondered how she was going to move the codebox; it was easier said than done.

She looked up and down to see if any wires connected the code to anything. She would have to disconnect those first.

To her own surprise she didn't see any.

_'None? But how can she even be around if she's not connected to the code?'_

It was almost like her code didn't belong in the coderoom.

Then, a sentence echoed in her head. _'Everyone here thinks I'm just a mistake and never meant to exist.'_

But, Vanellope had no choice but to refuse the idea that Crimson wasn't meant to exist. She was standing right there; how could she not be meant to exist?

Pushing those thoughts aside, she carefully pushed Crimson's codebox over closer to the other racers, which took a few minutes since it was so far away.

"There." She muttered with a grin at her accomplishment.

Even though Crimson's code wasn't connected, at _least_ now it was in the correct section.

_'Better than being by the trashcan.'_ Vanellope thought to herself.

"Almost done?" Crimson yelled out from a distance away. It was easy to tell that she was growing impatient.

"Yeah, getting there. I know I probably seem as slow as molasses."

"Okay." Crimson agreed. "Can you just hurry up soon, if you can?" She tried to ask politely.

"Sure."Vanellope answered before continuing her code-fixing.

Now she just needed something to keep the code from drifting off into the nowhere of space.

Vanellope looked around in the coderoom and caught sight of an object connected to the top of the endless coderoom floating astray. It was a wire and it was exactly what Vanellope wanted.

"Perfect." Vanellope muttered.

Vanellope swam over and grabbed the wire dangling from the game and plugged it into Crimson's codebox.

The codebox glitched over in red numbers as it was being plugged in, but stopped shortly after.

Vanellope didn't know what that exactly meant, but she thought she succeeded in making Crimson a racer.

"Hey Crimson!" Vanellope yelled out to her.

"What?" Crimson asked in response.

"I'm done. Do you feel any different?"

Before Crimson answered, she decided to pull the licorice rope to put Vanellope back on her own two feet.

After she helped Vanellope out of the coderoom, she smiled and answered, "Thanks Vanellope. I can't wait to leave the game...and you know...race too."

"You're welcome. I can't wait to race with you. Later, I'll add your name to the leader board and do a few more things I have to do before you can be a true racer."Vanellope responded.

"That's fine." Crimson replied, trying to hold back her excitement. "I'm going to go do something I've wanted to do for a long time now." Crimson added as she turned around and started to leave the castle.

"What are you going to do?" Vanellope curiously asked.

"Leave the game." Crimson simply answered with a smile before leaving the castle.

"Okay, bye!" Vanellope waved to her friend before returning to what she was doing. She pressed a button to close the doors to the coderoom and left to go down the passageway into the throne room.

* * *

Meanwhile, Crimson was running just outside castle towards the rainbow bridge. She hadn't been this excited in who knew how long.

_'Finally, for once I can leave. I'll probably come back since that Vanellope-girl is the new ruler, not that jerk, King Bluff. But, for now all that I want to do is leave and see what the world looks like outside this dumb sour game.'_

After running by the racetrack and through the candy cane forest, she finally reached the bottom of the rainbow gum bridge that led up to the entrance of the game.

Crimson bit her lip out of nervousness and muttered quietly to herself.

"Here goes nothing."

With that said, she started to scurry up the edible rainbow.

Even though she was bursting with excitement, she also felt a tinge of nervousness.

_'What if this doesn't work?'_ She worried. But, she would never know until she tried whether it would work or not.

She stopped running once she reached the top of the rainbow bridge, only a few feet away from the exit.

_'Do I want to know if this really works or not? I mean last time I was up here...'_ She shook her head at the thought. She didn't want to continue to think about what happened last time she was up on the rainbow bridge. The time when she was confronted by _him_.

She put her hand on the handle of her sword. She had to get ready to protect herself if for some unknown reason there was something out there passed the barrier that was dangerous or even worse, someone like King Candy, attacks her. She just wanted to be prepared that was all.

She took in a deep breath and carefully inched towards the exit.

_'This is it. Only a little bit farther now.'_

She was just scared, that was all. But regardless, she moved closer, now gripping tightly to her sword.

_'Almost there.'_

Then, she was less than a centimeter away. She used her sword to swing around to see if there was anything there.

It didn't seem like there was anything.

"Did it actually work?" Crimson wondered. If it did, she couldn't wait to go around to all the other games and meet all the different characters.

She swung her sword around again and it didn't seem to hit the barrier that was there before.

For the first time in a long time, she let out a laugh of happiness.

"I can finally leave!" She screamed out happily with a huge childish grin on her face.

After she was done celebrating, she ran down the tunnel that led to Game Central Station.

But she only was able to make it a few steps before she ran into something.

She knew as soon as she bumped into it what it was; it was a barrier, much like the first one she remembered.

Unlike the other barrier, this barrier seemed more flimsy; like rubber. Even though it seemed weaker than the original barrier, it still did the same great job of keeping her stuck inside the game.

"I was robbed of my freedom. Apparently, what worked for Vanellope doesn't work the same way for me. I just want to leave and see the outside..." She sadly muttered to herself as she started to walk back inside the game at a slow rate."I should've known it was too good to be true." She realized as she returned back into Sugar Rush.

* * *

Meanwhile inside the coderoom, unknown sounds filled the endless room. However, no one heard any of the mysterious sounds since the locked door blocked all of the sounds.

There were many clicking sounds and a codebox started to repeatedly glitch a red color.

The codebox grew and decreased in size. It looked as if the codebox was having a seizure.

Then, the codebox stopped and glitched a little more before dividing into two codeboxes.

One of the codeboxes stopped glitching all together, while the other codebox only glitched slightly.

The glitching codebox floated over into the atmosphere until it was surrounded by many other codeboxes.

The codebox opened up as if it had been clicked by someone to reveal all the data.

A sound that sounded like someone was knocking on door was heard and a bright flash of blinding white light shone throughout the coderoom from the malfunctioning codebox.

A grunt was heard as a person came out of the codebox.

"So bright in here..." The person muttered as they shielded their eyes from the luminous light.

Eventually, the bright light dimmed down to just the normal glow of the codebox.

The codebox stopped glitching and revealed to have a name written upon it. The same name that belonged to the person who exited the codebox.

It read one word; a word that would change everyone's fate in the arcade.

It read in red letters the name _'Turbo'_.

The racer stared at the codebox and turned around and muttered something quietly under his breath.

"He was right; changing the code would trigger a glitch in the game. The only difference is that _I'm _the one who is back in the game and I'm ready to play."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Takeover, Takedown, and Turbo

_'I guess I might as well tell Vanellope it didn't work.'_ Crimson thought sadly.

She was walking down from the rainbow bridge after her failed attempt to try and leave the game. She was walking slowly back to the castle. So far, the walk was much longer than she would have expected it to be; maybe she just didn't remember how long it was from before.

She shrugged as she continued on her journey to the castle.

* * *

Meanwhile, everyone in Sugar Rush was clueless to what was going inside the coderoom.

After the mysterious codebox that read Turbo's name reappeared, it was only minutes until disaster was to come.

The rebooted codebox stood still for a while before starting to glow white. The codebox was so bright that it was inevitable to see some of the surrounding codeboxes without staring straight into the blinding light.

A loud moan was made. A person's silhouette filled the center of the codebox.

"Time to come back once and for all." He muttered with a big childish grin on his face.

His silhouette walked over to the front of the codebox and he prepared himself.

"Time to go turbo once more."

Then, he jumped through the codebox's side. He went from the strange jelly-like structure to the cold emptiness of the coderoom.

"Feels nice to be back." He replied with a sly malicious grin. "That _glitch_ must be an idiot to lock that door to the coderoom. She locked me in with the game's settings and programming." He slightly laughed to his own amusement. "She doesn't even see it coming."

* * *

After a long time of walking, Crimson finally arrived at the castle's doors.

_Knock_

_Knock_

She waited patiently outside the chocolate doors for Vanellope's arrival. Instead of Vanellope, Sour Bill opened the door.

"Yes?" He asked her in a monotone voice.

"Ummmm...Where's Vanellope?" Crimson awkwardly asked, confused.

"You mean President Vanellope Von Schweetz?" Sour Bill questioned. "The president is busy in her room getting ready to do presidential work."

"Like what?"

"I think she might be getting ready to make a speech or something. I'm not exactly sure." He responded.

"Okay. Can you tell her that I'm here?"

"Sure. Who are you exactly?" He asked.

"My name's Crimson Crunch." She stated.

Sour Bill nodded. "I will inform the president." He added before leaving to go find Vanellope.

"I guess I'll just stay here." Crimson remarked, even though she knew Sour Bill didn't hear what she said.

She stood outside the castle for at least five minutes and started to grow impatient.

_'Where is she? It can't be that big of a castle, can it?'_

Before too much longer, Sour Bill returned to the door with Vanellope in tow.

"Thank you for waiting." Sour Bill complimented..

Crimson nodded, unsure of what to say.

"Uhh...thanks, I guess. Anyway, can I have some time to talk to the president?"

Sour Bill nodded. "Okay." He agreed before leaving again.

"Sorry about the wait, Crunchy. I got to get ready for a big announcement I have for everyone in Sugar Rush." Vanellope apologized.

"What's the big announcement?" Crimson curiously asked.

Vanellope shook her head along with her finger in a childish manner. "No, no, no. The announcement is a surprise and I don't want to spoil it for you."

"Okay. I guess I can wait." Crimson added with a happy smile. "But, I have some news too, though. My news isn't as happy." Her smile started to fade.

"What news? Did something bad happen?" Vanellope questioned.

"Well...you can say that something bad happened..."

"What?" Vanellope interrupted.

"I still can't leave the game. I may be considered _'part of the game'_, but I still can't leave yet. The game must still see me as a glitch." She explained.

Vanellope narrowed her eyes and put her hand under chin in deep thought.

"I wonder why it didn't work..." She pondered.

"I don't know exactly." Crimson shrugged, glitching while doing so.

"It worked for me, so why didn't it work for you?" Vanellope wondered.

"I guess the game just doesn't like me." Crimson concluded.

"I'm sure that's not _exactly_ true; it's probably just the game not recognizing you or something along those lines." Vanellope comforted.

"I guess that could be true..." Crimson replied, slightly doubting what Vanellope said could be the problem.

"Don't worry about it, Crimson. Just think about my big news that I'm going to announce. It's going to be sweet."

"I'll try and think about the announcement then. Maybe it'll be a good distraction to get my mind off the sad event from earlier."

Vanellope patted Crimson on the back. "Think about the good, not the bad. It'll make you feel better."

"Okay." Crimson agreed, a small smile forming at the corners of her mouth.

"Go out there, Crunch." Vanellope muttered with a slight push over to the door. "I need just a few more minutes to get my speech all ready."

"Okay." Crimson added as she left the castle. She felt better already.

_'I just have to wait and see what her speech could be about. It seems like its happy news...or else she wouldn't have been as joyful as she was in there.' _She shrugged,_ 'At least it's happy news. I can't wait to hear it.'_

Then, she started going down the pathway to the racetrack. She didn't want to be late.

* * *

While everybody was planning for Vanellope's big speech, someone was busy making adjustments to Sugar Rush.

Turbo swam around the coderoom adding different changes around Sugar Rush. Unlike last time, he actually _had_ the time to make a bunch of the changes he wanted.

He already changed the jumbotron to register his name, the trophy to register his coin and a few other minor changes.

_'If I keep the work up, I should be done before too long. But, I have to make sure I'm careful; I don't want a glitch coming out this time around.'_

He continued editing codeboxes for a fair amount of time before he stopped to start working on one important codebox; his own.

The codebox didn't actually look in too bad of shape for everything it went through.

Turbo rubbed his hands together malicious as he stared down his own codebox.

"Time to make some changes." He muttered as he started changing even more stuff.

Eventually, soon after, he was done. A big grin was stuck on his face out of his excitement.

"Time to meet some of my old subjects." He added as he swam up to the top towards the door that exited the coderoom.

_'Shoot! I forgot that door was locked.'_ He realized.

Then, an idea struck him and he started banging loudly on the door.

"Help? Help! Help? Help! I'm stuck in here." He yelled loudly.

Luckily for him, Sour Bill, who was in the throneroom, heard his pleas of help.

Sour Bill rushed over to the loud screaming and did what any normal person would do; unlock the door. He entered a code and Turbo came tumbling out as the door opened.

'Let's see if my hard work paid off.' Turbo anxiously thought.

"Sire, can I help you?" Sour Bill asked as he lent a hand down to Turbo.

Turbo took his floating green jellybean hand and helped himself off of the ground.

"Thank you, peasant." Turbo replied happily. "May I ask you for a favor?"

"What would that be, sir?" Sour Bill questioned.

"Gather the racers at the racetrack. I have some business I need to take care of." He requested.

"Yes, Sir." He nodded before scurrying away.

Turbo put his fingertips together in accomplishment.

_'Well, it worked. Turbotastic job done, Turbo. Now you just have to deal with that glitch who ruined your plans before.' _He thought to himself overjoyed. Then, an idea struck him. _'That would work. Turbotastic! I just need to find that glitch...'_ He looked around to see if she was nearby, which she wasn't.

He walked out of the hallway and into the throneroom. He sat on her throne and patiently waited for her arrival.

In shorter time than he expected, Vanellope arrived in the room dressed up somewhat nice.

"Crimson!" She called out as she arrived in the center of the throneroom.

Turbo hopped off the throne. Vanellope heard a sound and turned around to face him.

Her eyes widened and she felt at unease.

"King...Candy...is...here?" She stuttered.

"Turbo, actually." He corrected. "...And to answer your question; yes, I am here."

"Why the fudging heck are you here?" Vanellope questioned with narrowing eyes.

"I came back after you fiddled around in the coderoom. Now that I'm back, I'm here to get what I want." He clarified.

"But, the same thing will happen as before. Why don't you go to another game and bother them?"

Turbo facepalmed himself. "Oh boy, I'm an idiot. To try and take over the same game twice in a row? You're right. I need to go to a different game. Can your glitchness escort me?"

Vanellope was very suspicious, but also confused at the same time.

_'Is he trying to pull a fast one on me?' _She wondered.

"I'll agree under the condition that the guards come with me as well." She stated.

"Fine." He muttered annoyed.

"Good. But, we better get going. I have a speech need to give. Thank you very much." She responded before leaving to go get the guards.

_'That barf-a-rific lunatic is probably up to no good. I'll follow his instructions and Ralph, the guards and the Surge Protector will stop him. There's no way he's going to get away this time. I'm the president of Sugar Rush and he is some crazy character from a game who-knows-how old. I would just throw him in the Fungeon, but I worry he would escape.'_

"Guards!" She yelled from the throneroom.

Within seconds, the guards arrived at the throneroom with confused expressions on their faces.

"Escort Turbutt jerk-face to the game's entrance. Let the Surge Protector decide what to do with him." She demanded.

The confused guards looked behind Vanellope to see Turbo nodding at them.

"Okay." They agreed.

"Very good. Follow me there." She ordered.

"Okay." They all agreed as they followed the tiny girl out the door with Turbo in tow.

But before they all left, Turbo softly whispered something into Sour Bill's ear.

Sour Bill nodded in response.

"Got that?" Turbo stubbornly asked.

"Yes, Sir." Sour Bill replied, sounding uncaring as usual.

"You better do it, or _else_." Turbo threatened as he left to go with the others.

Sour Bill ran back to the coderoom with a sharp object in his hand.

_'I guess I have no choice but to do what the leader wants.'_

Turbo, on the other hand, was being dragged by the donut cops who held him tightly in their grasp.

He tried to hide his sinister smile. He knew one thing that none of the others even _expected_ to happen. Not only did he just know it was going to happen, he knew it was only minutes away from happening. He wanted to laugh, but he knew it would give away his plan.

_'She won't even see it coming...'_ He thought sinisterly.

Moments later, they arrived at the top of the rainbow taffy bridge.

"Ready you son-of-a-gun?" Vanellope questioned.

"Yeah, but are _you_ ready?" Turbo remarked back.

Vanellope's eyebrows knit together in a look of confusion.

"What do you mean? You're captured and I'm the leader, not _you_."

"Actually that statement is reversed. _You're_ the convict, the captured one, not me." He replied as the guards let him go.

"What do you mean...?" Vanellope sadly asked, afraid of what was going to happen next.

"This!" He yelled. Along with the help of the surrounding guards, he pushed the small racer through the entrance of the game.

"Now!" He yelled into a small microphone that he brought along with him.

Back with Sour Bill, who was in the coderoom near Vanellope's code, he heard Turbo shout the codeword and he knew what he had to do.

Sour Bill tightly grasp the sharp knife-like piece of candy and cut the thick wire that was connected to Vanellope's code.

Moments after he cut the wire, he pressed the button on the microphone and started speaking.

"Done." He muttered, bored as usual.

"Perfect." Turbo happily replied back as he rubbed his hands together evilly.

Vanellope, who was now in the game's cord, stood up and scurried over to give Turbo a piece of her mind.

She ran over to the entrance of the game, but was stopped by the invisible barrier that kept glitches out of the game.

"Like it glitch?" Turbo snarled. He was only inches away from her, staring her down.

She looked up at his face with tears starting to form in her eyes. She was a tough nine-year old girl, but she was in pain.

"Why are you so fudging evil?" Vanellope asked through gritted teeth. She was angry, sad and terrified all into one.

Turbo evilly laughed. "Because I was _born_ this way, glitch. I am Turbo, the great, the powerful, ruler and I _deserve_ to be loved and the winner of all!"

"You're psycho! No one will ever love you, not only do you torture everybody you meet, but your ugliness with definitely kept people away from you!" She angrily yelled back.

Turbo stopped laughing and his grin turned into a frown.

_'Did she just insult __**me**__, the king and rightful ruler of Sugar Rush?'_

He gave her a deadly glare and asked her something in complete seriousness.

"Do you understand what I can do, glitch? I have all the power now; I don't think you should ever even _consider_ insulting your king." He stated seriously.

"King?" Vanellope questioned. "You're no king. You're not even wearing your stupid frilly costume! I don't have to worry anyway. Either the Surge Protector or Ralph will come and save me and put you behind bars, Tur-glitch-a-lots."

Turbo put his face in his hand and shook his head.

"Wow, you really are a _stupid_ glitch. I'm not fully stupid; even though you probably think I am. I already thought of that, ex-princess."

"President!" Vanellope argued.

Turbo's eyebrow raised. "Really? That's the part you want to argue about?"

"No!" Vanellope agreed. "I want to know what _exactly_ you did to Sugar Rush."

Turbo started to think to himself. He counted on his fingers as he started listing stuff.

"Let's see...I made myself king, changed the characters' thoughts of me besides you, I redesigned some places around Sugar Rush, added the barrier on the outside of the game to keep you locked up and last but not least, lock the you up."

Vanellope tried to take in all the information in at once. She was unsure of what even to say.

"How'd...you come back?" She managed to ask.

"Oh, it was because of _you_." He pointed to her. "Too many changes to the codes can cause a glitch. Boy I'm glad it can." He added.

Vanellope was about to say something else, but Turbo checked his watch and interrupted her.

"Oh shoot, I better get going. I have a _speech_ to do, don't you know." He bragged before leaving with the guards. Vanellope was left all alone.

_'What am I going to do?'_ She wondered.

* * *

Down at the racetrack, Crimson finally arrived to see the racetrack appearing _odd_.

Crimson was only at the racetrack once before, but she _knew_ something wasn't right.

It was cloudy in Sugar Rush, which was completely different from the usual sunny sky. Also, the dark hovering clouds made everything appear dark; not their normal bright colorful colors. The racetrack also was suspiciously quiet; also unusual. Last but not least, Vanellope was nowhere in sight. It was only minutes until Vanellope was to give her speech.

_'Where is she?'_ Crimson wondered. _'Maybe, one of the other racers know. I guess I'll ask one of them. They've probably changed some within the past fifteen years.'_

Crimson looked around to see if any of the fifteen racers were in sight.

She looked around the racetrack without any luck until she saw someone in the very corner of her eye.

She didn't even care who it was, but she sprinted over to them to ask if they knew what was going on.

She stopped as soon as she was in front of the patriotic-themed racer.

"Hi." Crimson greeted, "Do you know what the heck is going on?" Crimson politely asked.

"What do you mean? I'm just going to listen to the ruler give a speech. It required that all the racers are there, you know?" She responded grumpily. "Now get out of my way." She roughly pushed Crimson to the side and started to head over to the stands.

Luckily for Crimson, she only stumbled a bit, but didn't fall completely down. But, she had worse problems to deal with at the time.

"Something's not right..." She muttered quietly to herself. Something just _felt_ off.

_'I guess some racers never change.'_ Crimson thought about her encounter with Adorabeezle.

Not too long after, a loud sound of engine reviving is heard in the distance, growing louder and louder by the second. It was only a matter of seconds before they would arrive at the racetrack.

As soon as the karts started getting close, Crimson jumped out of the way as the karts sped on by.

"Phew...that was a close one." She muttered as she wiped the sweat off her face.

The racers parked their karts as fast as they arrived in them. They all jumped out and ran over towards the popcorn box.

_'I guess that's where Vanellope speaks.'_ Crimson realized. She still had a _lot_ to learn about Sugar Rush.

"Did he speak yet?" She heard one of the racers ask.

_'He? I must've heard her wrong. She probably said she, instead of he.'_ She corrected herself.

"Yeah, I'm so excited. _He_ hasn't given a speech in forever." One of the racers overdramatically stated.

Now, Crimson was totally confused. Out of instinct, she started walking over to the group of bratty racers. She _had_ to ask what this was about.

As soon as she arrived over by the group of racers, she tapped the shoulder of a girl with green hair to match her green outfit.

"Uh...excuse me?"

"What do you want?" The girl angrily replied back.

"Um...I'm sorry to bother you. But I was just curious why are you guys standing over here? What are you exactly doing?" Crimson asked, confused.

"What? Are you not a racer or something?" She shrugged, "I guess, I don't know. Anyway, we're all here to listen to the ruler of Sugar Rush talk. _He_ is a really great ruler-"

Crimson interrupted her. "I'm sorry, but this is urgent. I need to know who is the ruler of Sugar Rush."

"The ruler of Sugar Rush? He is-" But, before she could finish, she was cut off by Sour Bill talking at the top of the podium.

"Citizens of Sugar Rush, I present to you...the rightful ruler of Sugar Rush..."

The curtain opened up to reveal who the ruler of Sugar Rush was. It wasn't who Crimson expected it to be.

"King Turbo." Sour Bill finished.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Wanted

Crimson heard what Sour Bill said and couldn't even believe her own ears.

"Turbo...?" She muttered scared. She remembered seeing him as King Candy, but she never knew who Turbo was until Vanellope told her.

_'I can't believe how it's possible...how can he be any scarier?'_ She wondered. She never thought he would come back again. Now, she had to face him again_. 'But, it's okay. Vanellope will take him down.'_ She reassured herself._ 'Speaking of...where is Vanellope anyway?'_ She wondered as she looked around the scene, which had no sight of her anywhere around.

"Well, my royal subjects. I might as well tell you the good news." She heard the evil king start. She tried her best to ignore him, but his loud annoying voice was hard to not hear.

"I, the rightful ruler of Sugar Rush, have defeated the evil afflicting our game once more, so we all can continue racing." He claimed.

All the racers excluding Crimson cheered in response.

_'Huh?'_ Crimson thought, confused_. 'What does he mean about defeating an evil person? He, himself is the evil one!'_

Without even realizing it, Crimson muttered, "Bull." She knew that was a lie, along with everything else he said.

The racers' cheering came to an end and everyone gave Crimson a dirty glare.

"What did you just say?" Turbo asked, appalled.

"I said 'bull' as in lies. You're lying." Crimson clarified.

Everyone only continued to give her glares until the king spoke up.

"Take her to my castle! She must be a traitor to insult the king like that." He ordered.

The donut cops followed by some Oreos guards came up to Crimson and surrounded her.

She pulled out her sword and knew what she had to do.

_'I guess it's go time.'_ She thought to herself as she positioned herself to get ready for battle.

"Catch her!" Turbo yelled out to his minions.

The Oreo guards had barely a chance to get close to the racer.

She cut them in half, which stalled enough time for them to not be a nuisance to her. But as soon as she arrived near the donut cops, she tried to do the same thing, which failed when Wynnchel grabbed the end of her sword.

"You're coming with us missy." Wynnchel stated.

Crimson didn't particular want to, but she had no choice in the matter.

Wynnchel and Duncan grabbed her tightly as they did years ago. They looked up at Turbo who nodded.

Dragging Crimson, they walked to the big candy castle that appeared to be purely made of white chocolate on the outside.

_'Great.'_ She thought sarcastically. _'It's just like fifteen years ago. Besides, I don't want to talk to that evil jerk.'_

But against her will, she was dragged on the long pathway that led to the entrance of the castle.

As soon as they arrived, Duncan used his free hand to open the front door the castle.

All three walked inside and Duncan closed the door behind him.

"Now, wait here until the king is done." Duncan instructed. Even though Crimson wanted to argue with the two guards, she just decided to remain silent for the best.

About ten minutes later, the king finally arrived at the castle.

"She is here, Sire." Wynnchel replied.

Turbo just ignored him and walked on passed him, waving him off.

Both of the donut cops left the room to let the king be along with his traitor.

Once both of the cops were gone, Crimson had to ask something that she'd been wondering the past half-an-hour.

"Where's Vanellope?" She questioned.

Turbo narrowed his eyes at her in suspicion. "How do you know that name?"

"You mean the ruler of the game? I'm not completely stupid. I know who she is; I just don't know _where_ she is." She answered.

Turbo put his fingers under his chin and started to think to himself. He paced back and forth trying to figure out a puzzling piece of information.

_'How does she know about the glitch? I thought I erased her from the memories of everyone. How could she know? Could she be from outside of the game?'_

"Are you from another game?" He asked.

"No." Crimson firmly answered, she had no clue how he could even think of that question. Apparently, he didn't remember her from before.

"Have you ever left the game?" He wondered.

Crimson bit her lip. She didn't _want_ to lie, but saying _'no'_ would definitely give herself away as a glitch.

"Yes." She decided to lie.

"Hmmmmmmm..." Turbo pondered, confused. Then, an idea popped in his head and he knew what he had to do. "Guards!" He shouted as the two rushed inside the room.

"What is it?" Duncan asked.

"Bring me one of the racer's karts." Turbo ordered.

"Are you sure, Sire?" Duncan questioned. "Which one?"

"Any one will work. Maybe bring that Candlelight-girl's kart; she's not smart enough to know what happened to it." He answered in reply.

Both of the cops nodded and rushed out the door.

"Why did do you that for?" Crimson asked confused. She didn't know what Turbo was planning to do.

"You'll see soon enough." He only responded.

A little while later, the two donut cops returned hauling the birthday cake kart that they supposedly _'borrowed'_ from Candlehead.

"Here it is, Sire." Duncan exclaimed as the two men set the kart down into front of Crimson.

"What exactly do you want me to do with this?" Crimson asked while she pointed to the frosting-filled kart. She was still confused why this kart had anything to do with her.

"It's easy." Turbo replied with a shrug. "Drive it."

Crimson's eyes widened and her face went white. She now understood completely his intentions for doing this.

_'I... don't know what to do. I can't drive that kart. But, he'll know I'm not a real racer if I do. What should I do?'_ She worried.

She guessed she had no choice; she had to go into the kart and try. Maybe, she would be able to fake it enough to fool Turbo.

_'Here I go.'_

She hopped into the kart and already Turbo's expression changed. He started to bit his fingernails out of nervousness.

_'Okay. What do I do? Maybe push down one of the buttons on the floor? I mean, I think that's the first step.'_

So, that's what she did. She stepped hard on the kart's pedal.

The wheels on the kart spun around, but the kart didn't go anywhere.

Turbo stopped biting his nails. He was no longer as nervous as he was before.

"Come on!" Crimson replied frustrated after trying once again.

Nothing happened.

Out of frustration, Crimson started to pull all the different levers and push all the different buttons on the kart. She was starting to worry and freak out.

All the different switches caused the kart to do weird things, including lighting the fire on the candles on the kart. But eventually, the kart sped forward and ran into the castle's wall.

The wall cracked in so many directions it wasn't even funny. It was impossible to _not_ notice. Luckily, Candlehead's kart wasn't in too bad of a wreck.

"So, you're _not_ a racer. Who are you exactly?" Turbo demanded.

Crimson hopped out of the kart and pulled out her sword. She turned around to face Turbo.

"Remember me? My name's Crimson Crunch. If not, I _sure_ remember you." She firmly answered.

Turbo finally realized something.

"You're that glitch!" He exclaimed. "Not _the_ glitch, but the _other_ one. I remember you now. I'm surprised you're not choosing to side with me though."

Crimson pointed her sword at him.

"I'll _never_ side with you." She replied through gritted teeth.

Turbo pushed her sword down and continued. "I mean _everybody_ should side with me, but _you_...you are special. Why, you may ask? Well, it was me who _'released'_ you." He explained.

"Released me? What the heck are you talking about?" Crimson questioned.

"Years ago, when I was taking over Sugar Rush for the first time, I was messing around in the coderoom. At the time, there were only fifteen racers. I changed a lot in the coderoom, _too much_ to be exact. When too many changes happen to the code, a glitch can be released into the game. That's where you come in, Sweetart. By accident, I released _you_. You weren't supposed to exist in this game. You should be happy I became king, if not you wouldn't exist. Think about that."

Crimson couldn't believe her ears. Her only hope was that Turbo was lying as he normally did.

_'No.'_ Crimson thought to herself as she shook her head. Also, she started to walk backwards without even realizing it.

"That's not true." She stuttered. She had no way to _prove_ it, but she knew that _had_ to be a lie.

"You sure?" Turbo questioned. "Ever wonder why you're a glitch? Or why you can't leave the game- which I assume you still can't do? Anyway, your answer is _me_; the person you absolutely cannot stand."

Crimson still didn't believe what he had said. However, she had a doubt that it _was_ true.

Before he could say anything else, she ran out the front door.

"Guards!" Turbo yelled at the top of his lungs.

"What it is, King?" Wynnchel and Duncan exclaimed as they arrived in the room.

"That girl poses as a threat to me, the kingdom and all of Sugar Rush. I want her captured and put in the Fungeon. Also, make sure to warn the other racers about this _hooligan_." He ordered.

"Why didn't you just go after her?" Duncan questioned.

Turbo gave him a dirty look and scoffed before answering his question. "I am a king, not a cop or a wrestler. If I _were_ either, I would be doing that right now; not being the king of Sugar Rush. But as you can see, you know which one I picked."

Without any further questions, Duncan and Wynnchel went to fulfill their orders.

Excluding Sour Bill, everyone left the throne room, giving Turbo the privacy he wanted.

He plopped down on the throne and put his hands behind his helmet in a laid-back position. He looked very comfortable.

"It feels great to be king." He muttered.

Sour Bill ignored what Turbo said and just continued to fan him with a lollipop.

"You can run Crimson, but you can't hide. There's only one game you can be in right now and that place is here." He murmured slyly.

* * *

Crimson didn't know where she was going, but she just continued to run.

She didn't feel safe here. Also, she had no clue where the _true_ ruler was. She just hoped Vanellope was okay. Vanellope was her only friend and the only person who understood her, unless some other glitch randomly appeared out of nowhere.

_'Hopefully, I'll find Vanellope, wherever she could be.'  
_

* * *

Back with Vanellope, she'd been calling for help for what felt like hours now.

She heard the Surge Protector call out to her and later, she heard Ralph.

"Are you okay, Ms. President?" The Surge Protector politely asked after a failed attempt to go down the cord. Now, there were two barriers keeping the president locked up.

Ralph, on the other hand, was very worried about his friend. He vowed to stay as close to the game as possible until Vanellope was safe again.

Both men tried hard to break the barrier, but neither of them had any luck. It was practically the only object that Ralph couldn't wreck.

Right now, Vanellope just sat near the end of the tunnel as close to Ralph as possible. But sadly, it wasn't close enough.

Vanellope had been crying for the past hour and she just wanted to go home. She wanted to go back to her own home the way she loved and remembered it. Even if she wasn't going back as president, she would be okay as long as things were normal. But, they weren't. Turbo had taken over and made everything terrible, including making the racers his little minions.

_'I wish he could be defeated like last time...but I can't cross the finish line this way...'_

"Helloooo?" Vanellope heard someone asked. The person's voice sounded familiar, but she couldn't pinpoint it. Out of suspiciousness, Vanellope chose to not say anything for her own safety.

"Vanellope?" The same person questioned.

Being called by her named, she turned to see who her visitor was.

It was Crimson.

"What are you doing here?" Crimson asked. She knew Turbo did something with Vanellope, but didn't know exactly what.

Vanellope wiped her tears and stood up. She walked over to friend.

"Turbo trapped me here, so I can't cross the finish line. I can't undo all of his changes when I'm out here. But, how's it like in there?" Vanellope answered in reply.

"All the racers don't know the truth. I think he brainwashed them somehow to do everything he says. They're like his minions. I'm glad to finally find you, though. Do you have any clue what to do?"

"Hmmmmm..." Vanellope thought to herself. "I'm not sure...he was defeated last time by me winning the race. But, I don't know how that'll help since the Sourbutt pushed me out here. I'm not exactly sure what to do. Before, I had Ralph help me beat that son-of a gun."

Crimson nodded, processing what Vanellope said. An idea was forming in her head. It would be hard to do, but maybe it could help beat the sucker.

"I actually think I might have an idea..." Crimson muttered astonished. "It might not defeat him fully, but it'll weaken him if it works correctly."

"Well, good luck, Crunchy. I don't know what you plan to do, but I hope it'll work. I don't want that sore sour loser to permanently steal my job."

"Don't you worry Vanellope; I'm going to beat him at his own game." Crimson added with a smile.

"Well good luck, Crunchy. I'll be waiting here." Vanellope replied with a wave as Crimson left.

* * *

When Crimson made it to the end of the end of the bridge, she could see cops in the distance.

_'How did they find me already?'_ She wondered. By some miracle, she had to leave unnoticed. She wanted to go back to her house, but they would probably have the place surrounded.

_'Somehow, I have to get to the kart bakery. Even if I don't exactly want to, I need to learn to drive and get myself a kart.'_

She pulled out her sword and cautiously started to walk in the general direction of the kart bakery.

"Hey, I see her!" One of the guards exclaimed.

_'Oh shoot.'_ Crimson thought to herself, knowing what was coming.

A big group of guards on motorcycles raced over in her general direction.

An idea struck Crimson and she knew how she was planning to take these guys down.

"Piece of cake." She muttered softly to herself.

She prepared herself and got her sword in position.

The guards came closer and she extended her sword and sliced the tires on the motorcycles.

The motorcycles started to slide out of control and crash to the ground. All the guards fell off of their broken bikes. All except one went unconscious from the fall.

Crimson took the opportunity and decided to desert the group of crazed guards.

The one conscious guard picked up a walkie-talkie a pressed the 'talk' button.

"It's guard number forty-six. Runaway was found, headed to the north-west section of the game. Repeat; runaway headed to the north-west." He replied before passing out.

* * *

Crimson continued to run for a while until the kart bakery was in sight.

"Whoa..." She muttered to herself in amazement. It was an incredible sight and much bigger than she expected it to be.

"Time to make a kart." She added as she started running up to the factory.

Beard Papa was sleeping as usual. He had to be the worse guard known to man, but he still kept his job.

Crimson snuck on past him and carefully walked up to the doorway.

The door was wide-opened. At least there was one thing from Vanellope's reign that still stood.

Crimson walked inside.

_'I guess all the guards decided they needed a break.'_

A glowing red button was set on the floor. Crimson walked over and pushed the button.

A selection of cars appeared around the glitch.

She looked all around and finally made her selection. It was a kart similar to a pink one she saw earlier on the racetrack.

"Now let's bake a car. You have one minute to win it. Go!"

Crimson saw the first minigame start right in front of her eyes. She raced over to it to start playing the game.

"Mixing!" The announcer stated as Crimson frantically started to turn the provided wheel left and right to get some correct ingredients into the mixing bowl.

A bag of sugar appeared.

"Yes."

Then, underpants arrived.

"No!"

After the underpants was a fire hydrant.

"No." But, she accidently got the object into the batter anyway.

Then, eggs started to fly onto the lever.

After turning left and right a couple more times, she got about half of the eggs into the mixing bowl.

She continued to try and separate the ingredients, messing up a few more times. But, she didn't care as long as she could still get a kart from the finished product.

"Baking!" The announcer yelled as Crimson ran over to the next station. "Can you keep up the heat?"

Crimson got onto the platform for the heat, only causing the meter to go up about half-way.

After a few seconds, Crimson started to jump up and down due to her frustration.

_'Maybe it'll work better if I jump on it.'_

But, actually it turned out to be the opposite. All the movement caused her to glitch.

Her whole code glitched red and so did the platform underneath her. The platform glitched along with the wire connecting it to the oven.

"Whoops." Crimson muttered as she watched her glitch go through to the minigame. She started to have doubts about being able to make a kart until she saw something amazing happen right before her eyes.

The amount of heat in the oven doubled to just the perfect amount. The amount landed on the _'Just Right'_ section and then, a beep was heard.

The kart moved along the next station and so did Crimson.

_'So...wheels and frosting next?'_

Crimson went over to the blaster and started to shoot pieces for her kart. She first started with the easy part; wheels.

Then, she maneuvered the blaster towards the section of frostings. After a quick look, she knew exactly what type of frosting she wanted.

She aimed over towards the container of red frosting and did her best to try and hit it.

She only had a small amount of time left before the minigame was over and it would be time for her to get her kart.

After her kart was out of sight, she walked over to the side and saw a tiny garage door which separated her from her kart.

The door flashed a couple times as the announcer started to talk.

"Congratulations...and here's your car!"

The door opened up and Crimson saw her kart finished for the first time.

"Wow..." She muttered amazed as she stared at the beautiful kart.

Underneath the small layer of red frosting that sat on top was ribbon candy formed to make a kart. She didn't exactly know why it was there, but she was glad that it was. It was now a part of her.

She hopped in the kart and started examining the different controls on it. She started with the different levers and buttons near the wheel. One button activated power-ups. Another button didn't do too much. Last, but not least was the joystick.

She pushed it forward and sped off within a second.

_Squeeak_

She slammed down hard on the brakes until the kart stopped. She shifted the joystick again back into original position.

"That's enough practice for now." She muttered, still at unease about driving. _'I just got to get home and then, I'll be all good.'_ She thought simply. It couldn't be too hard to break out if she was able to successfully break in?

She dusted off her hands and went to go press the button on the side of the garage to raise the door.

The candy door slowly, but surely, rose to reveal millions of candy guards around Turbo.

"Give it up, other glitch. You can't escape millions of guards now can you? You're practically surrounded with no chance of escape."

"Oh really." Crimson snapped back as she held her sword out just inches away from the king's face.

King Turbo only flashed a smart-alack grin.

"You and I both know you're not going to kill me right here, right now. If I were you, I think it would be a good idea to put the weapon away before I get too _angry_." He taunted.

Crimson knew she had no choice and lowered her sword.

"Good..." Turbo replied proud of his efforts. "Now get her!" He screamed to the guards.

All the guards charged inwards and Crimson knew their exact intention.

As soon as they were only inches away from her, she jumped. She hopped up into the air as the guards crashed into each other, causing them all to fall down.

Then, Crimson unintentionally landed on top of the pile of guards.

Since the group of guards created a domino effect, many guards were wiped out and laid passed out on their backs.

Crimson glitched and all the hundreds of guards combined into one.

The people left standing were Crimson, Turbo and one Oreo guard.

"Well played, other glitch. Well played, but the battle is not over yet." Turbo replied.

"Sadly, not yet." Crimson murmured under her breath, jumping off the last guard while doing so.

Then, Turbo caught a good glimpse of an object behind the glitch. "So, what's that behind you? Did you try to build yourself a kart?" He asked as if he was talking to a baby.

"Yes. Why do you care?" Crimson crossed her arms in front of her.

"I don't what a glitch racing. You know, you don't even know _how_." He answered.

Crimson gave him a look that showed she didn't believe him. Pretty much everything that came out of his mouth was a lie.

"Don't believe me? Fine, guess you want another answer huh? Well, first things first, it's kind of pointless; you'll never be able to beat me. Second reason is because you're a glitch. I'm not an idiot."

"But..." Crimson started. Then, a great idea popped inside her head. It was guaranteed to work since Turbo loved himself way more than anything else. "...I just wanted to race against you to see how good of a racer you are. But, I see that you're just scared that I might be better than you..."

His eyes widened. He never thought it could be possible. Could this little girl be possibly better than himself? For sure, he would have to teach this girl a lesson and prove her wrong.

"I'm not scared of you. But, I have to put you in your place! You can't even think you can beat me. You and me are going to have a race tomorrow just to prove you wrong. There's no possible way you can beat me, you _glitch_!" He angrily spat back. Then, he started to walk away. "Don't you forget it!"

After he left, Crimson couldn't help but think, _'That sure didn't go the way I expected, but it worked.'_

**Author's Note: I hope you guys enjoyed and happy new year :)**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Solo

**Author's Note: I'm sorry on the ridiculously long wait for this chapter. I had to rewrite parts of it and unfortunately, it was taking longer than I expected. But anyway, here's the new chapter. Hope you enjoy it :)**

Crimson stood at the kart bakery in disbelief.

_'I can't believe I'm actually going to do this: race against my mortal enemy. But, I guess it was the only option for my plan to be able to work.'_

She put her sword away and looked over at her new kart.

She gently patted it with her hand. As if it were a real person, she muttered under her breath, "Let's do this."

She hopped inside the kart and took a deep breath. Was she ready to do this?

_'I'd better get some practice in whether I like it or not; it's the only way I could ever have a chance at beating Turbo in the race.'_

She closed her eyes and tried to remember what it was that started the kart the last time she was behind the wheel.

The scene of her trying to budge the cake kart replayed in her mind. She remembered pulling many levers and pushing tons of buttons, but which one started the kart?

She pondered it for a while.

Then, it hit her.

"The joystick!" She realized. After moving it forward, that was when the kart jerked forward, causing it to run into the candy wall of the castle.

It all made sense now. Well, at least for starting up the kart, but she still had a _long_ way to go for learning the rest of it.

'_Maybe I'll be able to understand it better if I start the kart up?'_ She proposed. It was worth a shot.

She pushed the joystick forward and the kart rushed forward.

Out of instinct, Crimson slammed down hard on one of the pedals. Fortunately for it, it was the brake and not the gas pedal.

_Squeeeeak_

The kart's wheels screeched to a stop just barely touching the wall.

"I can't believe it…I did it…" She muttered, astonished.

She had done it. Somehow, by some miracle, she had.

It was weird. It was almost as if she felt the answer soar through her code.

'_That was a close one. But, I did it. Maybe there's hope for me driving yet...but I just need to keep practicing and working on that feeling, that's all.'_

She closed her eyes and focused on that same feeling through her code once again.

She concentrated and slightly shifted the joystick back.

Once she did, she slowly opened up her eyes and gently placed her foot on the pedal.

Glancing over her shoulder, she backed her kart up.

Once she was done backing up, out of instinct, she re-adjusted the joystick forward once again and placed her foot on the gas pedal.

'_I can't believe it. It's like my code actually knows what to do.'_

Still in her kart, she dashed out of the kart bakery.

She felt the sugary wind blow through her hair as the amazing view of the world passed on by her.

_'Where should I go now?_' She wondered as she slowed down. _'The racetrack? Should I go back home? Should I-?'_

Then, it hit her.

She figured out what she should do; go to the Candy Cane Forest.

It wasn't as noisy or crowded as the racetrack. However, it also wasn't as easy either. There were many turns, obstacles along with most of a path to drive on.

"This will do." She murmured as she stopped the kart and jumped out to get a better look at the place.

It wasn't as happy of a place as it used to be. That was no surprise, thanks to Turbo.

The candy cane trees had lost their bright colors. Also, a layer of eerie fog covered the area. The dark nighttime sky didn't help make the place look any happier either.

It was now definitely creepier of a place, but there couldn't be anything in this forest that Crimson couldn't handle.

Well, except if Turbo was there. But who even knew about that? Crimson was in such a great mood, she could've easily kick his butt.

In the forest, there were two paths. There were obviously more throughout the long-stretching forest, but from where Crimson stood, there were only two main paths that laid ahead. Crimson debated about which one to practice on.

She looked over to the path on her left, followed by the path on her right.

The first path was much wider than the other and also had more trees, while the other path had only a few obstacles, but was very narrow.

_'Hmmm…Which one would be better to practice on?'_ She wondered. Would having more space along with more obstacles be better or having less space with less obstacles?

Crimson looked left, then right once again.

Then, she finally made up her mind.

"That one." She pointed to the path on the right.

Once she figured out what to do, she switched gears on the joystick once again.

_'This better work...'_

She tightly held the steering wheel and pushed her foot down on the gas pedal.

The kart sprinted forward down the path.

_'I've just got to keep going straight.'_ She mentally reminded herself. _'Keep going straight...'_

She continued to practice on the path for hours later.

Eventually, after enough practice, she switched over to the other track.

She continued practicing until it was about five o'clock in the morning.

The dark cloud-filled sky of Sugar Rush became a tad bit lighter due to morning, but the game still retained its gloomy feeling from the day before.

Crimson drove her kart off-road from the track until she finally arrived at the starting line.

She parked her new ride right in the front row of the starting line of the track.

But it wasn't alone.

Beside the ribbon candy kart, stood only one other kart on the line. Unfortunately, she knew who the white and yellow sugar-crystal kart belonged to...

It was Turbo.

Of course, his kart appeared to have all of the latest upgrades and such. Crimson just stared at it, afraid of how much power the kart contained.

It _had_ to be the fastest kart in the game, with _no_ doubt.

_'How do I stand a chance against the fastest kart in all of Sugar Rush?'_ She questioned.

But, she couldn't let it get to her. She just simply reminded herself of the plan; she could lose as long as her kart still crossed over the finish line, which seemed easy enough. As far as she knew, it was the only key to getting out of the game. She figured that if it worked for one glitch; it was bound to work for the other, right?

She had to hope.

Only a few minutes passed until the so-called, _'King of Sugar Rush'_ finally arrived. The audience only grew in their excitement.

However, Crimson wasn't excited, contrary to the crowd's opinion. Unlike him, she felt very alone.

No one here was on her side and she knew it. Apparently, they all wanted to support their jerk-of-a-leader's side. Speaking of the arrogant racer, he turned towards the crowd.

"Hello, my dear Turbo-ians."

The crowd cheered.

_'If only they knew what they just cheered for...'_ Crimson rolled her eyes in response. She may not have known much about the racers, but how could anyone possibly like this guy? He was a selfish jerk and unmistakably evil.

She knew she had to beat him at the race, not just for the sake of the game, but to teach the loser a lesson.

He continued, "We are here today to see a race between me..."

The crowd cheered loudly. It made Crimson feel at unease.

"...and the _other_ glitch of Sugar Rush, Crimson Crunch."

The moment the name was announced, there was a loud roaring _'Boo!'_ throughout the crowd. Crimson knew that they were all brainwashed, but it still made her feel bad inside. No one here was on her side.

She closed her eyes and tried to retain her focus. "Just don't let them get to you." She reminded herself, under her breath. "It's just Turbo trying to get inside your head."

She took in a deep breath before she finally burst open her eyes.

Looked around at the audience booing her, she knew that she had to prove every single one of them wrong.

What time better than here and now?

"I guess it's just you and me, glitch." The King smugly added. "Now's who's ready to see their great and powerful king win?!"

The crowd cheered even loudly then before. Crimson wasn't going to let it distract her.

_'Let's do this. Go up against my mortal enemy. I've been waiting to do this all my life.'_

She wasn't totally sure if she was ready, but she didn't have a choice in the matter. There was only one chance to do this, so she had to do this right.

Once Turbo was done gloating, he turned his attention towards Crimson.

A smug smile smeared across his face.

"You don't stand a chance."

Crimson wasn't going to listen to his insecure thoughts, she just had to focus.

_'He's just trying to make me doubt myself. Well, he better know that I'm not falling for that scheme.'_

"Let's see about that." Crimson snapped back as she got back inside her kart. She wasn't going to give Turbo the satisfaction of her doubting herself. No way.

Turbo stayed quiet, almost not sure of what to say. Instead of replying, he just simply got inside his kart and prepared himself.

Both of the racers quickly inspected their karts' conditions. By the looks of it, they appeared to be in pitch-perfect shape. If otherwise, they would find out any minute now.

Crimson tightly gripped the steering wheel.

_'Hopefully, I practiced enough for this.'_ She worried. Surely, she had practiced enough with her sword, but she wasn't too sure about her kart. She had only one day of practice. But, she knew like everyone else, she would find out soon enough.

Turbo just continued to flash his malicious smile.

_'She doesn't know what's coming.'_

Both of the racers seemed to be as ready as they'd ever be. They both patiently waited at the stoplight.

_Red..._

_Red..._

_...Green!_

That was the go signal. Both racers sped off into the sugar-filled atmosphere.

_'So far so good.'_ Crimson noted about her quick acceleration.

However, Turbo was still ahead of her. But at least, it wasn't by too far yet. There was still a good chance that she could possibly catch back up to him at any minute.

Both racers rushed down the sugar-filled highway no problem. It was nothing compared to what laid ahead; which was a jump followed by the next section, Gumball Gorge.

Crimson wasn't sure if she was ready for what was to come, but it wasn't like she really had a chance to change her mind now.

She switched gears on the joystick and stomped her foot firmly down on the gas pedal.

She wasn't going to fall short on the jump ahead. It just wasn't going to happen.

_'Time to see if that practice really paid off.'_

She neared the red taffy ramp.

Her kart sped off and approached the jump with ease. It landed in the next section with a slight thud.

_'Okay, here goes nothing.'_

She narrowed her eyes, determined. Yes, the area was much harder than what she was used to, but it couldn't be _that_ hard, it was only the first section.

Gumballs swayed back and forth, left and right, in a pendulum-like motion over the smooth, slick surface. Crimson took in a deep breath. She could do this.

Her kart glided with ease over the slick surface. But unfortunately for her, it was too much ease. The kart was sliding all over the place, making it difficult to control it.

_'Okay, maybe it's not that easy. Well, I'll be fine as long as one of the huge gumballs don't end up hitting my kart_.'

Her kart continued gliding forward, approaching the first gumball.

_'It'll be fine as long as I time it just right.'_

She hovered her foot over the brake pedal, slightly slowing down while waiting for the perfect moment.

Seconds passed and the moment still wasn't coming.

By now, she had almost reached the gumball, even though she was moving at the rate of molasses.

'_If I don't go pretty soon, there's no way I'll be able to catch back up to him…'_

At the very last second, the gumball dipped down in front her, only missing her kart by inches.

With that, she knew it was go time.

Her kart sprung forward as she pressed down hard on the gas pedal once again.

The following gumballs weren't as difficult. Crimson easily swerved left and right to avoid them.

She just had to keep her momentum.

_'That wasn't as bad as I had initially thought, but there's still a long way to go before I can beat Turbo…and finally leave the game…'_

It was her dream, even more than catching Turbo for good. She had just wanted to go outside of the game for so long ...and she was so close to achieving exactly that.

_'After the race.'_ She reminded herself, returning her attention to the road.

Maintaining her speed, she went through a special power-up box.

"Power-up!" The announcer yelled out.

A list of available power-ups flashed through, before one was randomly selected.

It was a _'sugar-rush'_ boost. It might've not been the best power-up, but it would work.

She had to catch up to that jerky racer someway.

She pressed the flashing button in the middle of her steering wheel and the power-up was activated.

_'Hopefully with this, I'll finally be able to catch back up to him.'_

The kart dashed through the last bit of Gumball Gorge before finally jumping over the cliff to the next section.

Crimson was scared and determined at the same time.

Within those fifteen years of being alone, who would've guessed she'd be doing this?

She certainly wouldn't have.

_Thud_

As her kart landed in the next section, the power-up faded.

_'Darn it, I still haven't caught up to him quite yet.'_ She muttered out of frustration.

But, at least she was closer now. Turbo probably wouldn't have guessed that she would've made it this far.

_'Not too bad of a start though.'_ Crimson admitted as she continued on her journey.

Then, she saw what laid ahead.

It was lots and lots of turns.

Crimson wasn't too great at turning, much like everything else, but there wasn't time to get more practice or have any errors.

This was the real deal.

'_Wait a second…'_ She realized, _'…I think I spot him.'_

She saw her opponent in the distance.

He was quickly approaching the top of the tall spiraling chocolate cake.

Crimson had to quickly get up there somehow.

She turned onto the very first spiral of the cake.

Following the first turn, she tried to make some smaller turns after, seeing if that helped her.

It did, but she still couldn't beat the King.

However, she did reach the top of the cake only seconds after Turbo.

Then, she sped through the tunnel over to the next section.

_Thud_

_'One more section left and then this'll be over. This will all be over.'_ She told herself as she continued along, finally arriving at the wintery area of the track.

Perfect flakes of the powered sugar drifted through the sky, coating the area in excess snow.

It was unlike anything Crimson had ever seen before. It was winter, even though the sun still shone bright off in the distance.

It was a beautiful landscape. Apparently, there were places in Sugar Rush that Turbo hadn't destroyed quite yet.

But even though she was admiring the area, she knew she had bigger issues currently at stake.

And his name was Turbo.

Or King Candy or whoever else the jerk was claiming to be.

Crimson was tired sick of Turbo controlling her life. He had treated her and everyone else poorly and where was he?

He was king.

It was a very unjust position for such a person.

Unlike her, he should've been the one taken to the Fungeon.

Unlike her, he should've been the one to stay locked up in the game.

He didn't deserve to be the one who wins the race.

It should be her, for once.

She narrowed her eyes on the track and kept her eyes on the prize.

She was going to win this.

Her foot stomped down hard the gas pedal and her code took over.

Somehow, her kart grew faster in speed. Maybe it was her determination. Who knew what for sure? All everyone knew for sure was that Crimson was quickly gaining on the king.

She made it through the Frosty Rally and flew straight into the rainbow road cave.

Turbo was just merely in front of her now.

This had suddenly gone from a very predictable race to a really close race. The audience started to grow nervous.

_'Only a little more.'_ Crimson muttered to herself. There was only just a little bit left until victory.

Crimson swerved to the right side of the track, avoiding running into her opponent's kart.

She continued her speed and gain on her opponent.

Then, that was when it happened.

The speed boost caused her to be land right next to her opponent's kart.

_Vrooooom_

_'What was that?'_ Turbo wondered, thinking he heard something. He turned towards his right.

It was déjà vu. But, this time it was Crimson instead of Vanellope in the cave.

'_What to do…' _He pondered. He knew by this time, it was too late to use the cave's shortcut now.

"Dammit!" He cursed aloud under his breath. An angry sneer was plastered onto his face until an idea struck him.

_'The joke's on her. There's no way she's going to win this thing.'_

Turbo continued going on his merrily little way, while Crimson had a huge lead over him now.

She glanced over her shoulder and saw that Turbo was still a distance away.

_'He can't catch me from here.'_ She told herself, but something still felt off about it. It just seemed too easy.

A rookie racer just simply _'passed by'_ the thirty-year-veteran racer?

It all just seemed a tad too simple to her.

_'Is this all a scheme?'_ She had to wonder. It made the most sense and unfortunately, it seemed very well like the thing Turbo _would_ do.

_'But if he had something planned, wouldn't he already have done it though?'_ She realized. Nothing too big had happened thus far.

She shook her head. Maybe she was just worrying over nothing.

As she approached the end of the cavern, light emerged along with a small smile across her lips. She knew that just merely passed the light would be the Finish Line.

She was so close too.

Actually, suspiciously close.

Something felt wrong here.

How could a one-day racer seriously beat a thirty year veteran racer?

Was it luck? Skill? Or a trick?

Turbo was always scheming something, so maybe this was all a trick?

But then again, he loved to win; he wouldn't have wanted to get so far behind on purpose.

Maybe this was no trick after all and Crimson was just ruining her own big moment.

All of her worrying for so long yielding pointless.

Then, she saw it.

The Finish Line.

There it was; the key out of the game. The key to the life she's always dreamed of.

It was so close yet so far.

The same thing could also be said about her enemy. But, she couldn't be focusing on him right now; she had a race to win.

It was her big moment. Nothing could stop her now.

Well, almost nothing.

A loud cracking sound was heard throughout the land.

The audience immediately looked up, in search for the source for the sound.

Then, they saw a small area of the sweet candy-filled sky starting to crack and split apart.

Crimson was too busy to notice the phenomenon going on with the sky, but the candy citizens couldn't help but glare at it, almost as if in a trance.

The once loud noisy audience stood silent as they stared down the fractionating sky.

The crack broke apart forming a gap. The mysterious gap appeared to be empty except for some random numbers inside.

The crack only continued spreading at the speed of light. The audience was left in both awe and confusion.

'_What the fudge is going on?'_ They all wondered.

Within mere seconds, half of the sky was broken. The entire area looked like an endless empty hole of code.

But it wasn't.

Through the massive hole, blurs of green and black emerged from of it.

The blurs of color were cy-bugs.

It wasn't just a hole in the sky; it was a portal.

* * *

Hundreds of bugs flew out of the mysterious hole at a dangerous speed.

_'What the heck is going on?'_ Crimson questioned as she watched the gang of cy-bugs land on the Finish Line.

Crimson had no clue what these things were. She actually had never seen them before. Yes, she could tell that they were bug-like monsters, but she didn't have any prior knowledge of the creatures.

She may not have known much about them, but she could easily guess that them coming here was definitely _not_ good.

_'Focus…'_ She reminded herself. These vermin weren't going to take away her one and only chance to leave the game.

She would deal with them later.

_Thud_

_Thud_

_Thud_

Doubts started to flood her brain. _'I'm not so sure if I can make it…'_

The cy-bugs continued moving at the speed of lightning and didn't seem to show any signs of slowing anytime soon.

_'How can they be so fast?'_ Crimson questioned. No one- not Turbo, not her, not even Vanellope was _that_ fast.

But she couldn't let them be the one to take everything away from her.

'_Maybe I can still make it.'_ She hoped. Maybe she could avoid these horrid monsters and make it out. She just had to hope.

She sped ahead, turning every which way to avoid the monsters.

_'Almost there.'_ She told herself. _'Almost there…'_

But it wasn't for long.

Too many bugs were coming down at a massive rate; Crimson could only keep up for so long.

She pressed down hard on the brake pedal as her kart skidded to a stop, only missing the Finish Line by mere feet.

"This is anything but good." She muttered under her breath.

The carnivorous bugs laid ahead, literally millions in number.

All against one.

'_What the heck are these things?'_ She curiously asked. Whatever the answer, she already knew the person who was behind it.

_'Him again.'_ She thought, aggravated. Of course he couldn't just leave her alone in peace.

She would've continued to go on about her grudge against the racer, but she had a bigger problem at state; the bug virus.

_'I mean…I can try to fight them, but I'm not so sure I can stand up against millions…or maybe more.'_

It was a hard task to succeed, but she _had_ to do at least something. If not, Sugar Rush was doomed.

She couldn't let that happen.

So, she hopped out of the ribbon candy kart and yanked out her sword

Readying it in front her, she whisper under her breath."I've got to figure out a way to stop them."

* * *

Cy-bugs were sliced, cut and spliced, but the number only continued to grow.

Even through all of her efforts, Crimson still proved no match against the massive amount of swarming pernicious bugs. Despite not wanting to admit it, she knew it was the truth.

_'This isn't working. Now what should I do...?'_

As she continued fighting, she looked around and searched for an idea.

Then, she found it.

It was right in front of her eyes.

She was staring at her sword.

"Glitching." She realized.

She touched the cool metal blade of the weapon and intentionally glitched

The glitch rippled across her code and transferred over to her sword.

A smile spread over her lips.

_'This could work.'_ She thought proudly. She could use the metal from her sword as a conductor of her glitches. With it, she should be able to glitch multiple cy-bugs into one.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She had to be ready to do this.

_'It'll be a lot of glitching, but I think I can handle it...besides, it's not like I have another choice anyway...'_

Her eyes flew open and a glitch triggered throughout her body. Within seconds, her sword had doubled.

With a sword in each hand, she readied herself.

"Game on."

She sprung forward with what seemed like fire gleaming in her eyes.

The swords continued clashing, slicing and stabbing the cy-bugs.

Thanks to her idea, many of the bugs were combining together into one, much like Crimson had hoped.

But unfortunately, they kept multiplying at the speed of lightning.

She just couldn't keep up with their speed.

While she was here fighting, she could just imagine what all of the other racers would be doing.

_'Not fighting that's for sure.' She knew. _They probably would've ditched the game by now if they weren't trapped inside it.

She wouldn't even be surprised if any of the rotten racers had already freaked out about it, but she didn't feel too sorry for them. Every day, she had to face this problem.

But one day of being trapped was nothing like fifteen years.

Crimson knew that other than Vanellope, the racers would never truly understand. They always had their life so easy.

They could always race whenever.

They could always go anywhere.

They weren't always treated badly.

Like she was.

Here she was protecting _their_ game.

Was it really worth the fight?

Crimson had pondered that question to herself.

She shook her head in protest to the distracting thoughts. _'What am I doing with letting this get to me? It's not entirely the racers' fault. Besides, whether I like it or not, this is my home game. I'm not going to give it up without a fight.'_

She continued the same strategy against the cy-bugs. It was working, but barely and definitely not fast enough.

How could she possibly defeat these opponents that she was no match against?

Yes, she could defeat them by glitching, but they only continued multiplying.

_'This isn't working. I either need to glitch quicker or...'_

Then, an idea struck her like a bolt of lightning.

'_I need more metal…but where?'_

It was good except that one flaw. The game was completely covered head to toe in candy and other sugary treats; there was barely _any_ metal to be found in the whole game.

_'The Fungeon may have some...'_ She realized. It _was_ where she found her sword in the first place. But would it be good enough?

She had to try.

Turning around, she fled the scene.

Everyone remaining at the racetrack was left in confusion by Crimson's decision.

"What the turbotastic heck does she think she's doing?" Turbo questioned. But instead of dwelling on it too much, he just simply shrugged. _'I can't always guess with that other glitch. Maybe she's decided to finally give up? Now that would be turbotastic.'_

But that was far from the truth.

Crimson was running full-speed towards the sugar-filled castle.

It was her only hope.

"Come on..." She murmured to herself. She was running at full-speed and yet, she was still slow.

_'If I don't make it soon, then who knows what will become of Sugar Rush.'_

After a few minutes passed, the glitch had finally made it.

She tried the doorknob.

No surprise; it was locked.

_'I don't have time to deal with this right now.'_

Using her sword, Crimson stabbed the chocolate door multiple times.

Over and over again. Hit after hit.

The chocolate crackled apart before it finally fell to the ground.

Crimson rushed inside.

Unfortunately, there were guards, but not nearly the same amount as usually.

_'Probably most of them already fled.'_ She assumed.

Less than a minute later, she was spotted.

"Hey! There she is; the other glitch!" One guard exclaimed very loudly.

_'I don't have time for this.'_

As the guards charged at her, she knocked them out of her way and rushed through the castle.

_'Man, what I would give to have teleport-glitching abilities like Vanellope right now…'_

It would've made her life a heck of a lot easier at the current moment.

"Let's see if I can remember..." She replied, trying to recall the fifteen year-old memory.

She remembered a staircase leading to the basement followed by a long hallway. At the very end of the hallway was the cell that contained the chains.

Now, she was just praying that those chains from before were still there.

The big long metal chains could conduct her glitching over a larger area. It would be the key to getting rid of the cy-bugs.

She just had to get to it and quick.

She pushed through more guards as she scurried down to the lowest level of the castle.

After skidding down to the end of the hallway, she finally saw it.

It was the room she remembered too well from her very first day of existence.

There it was in front of her once again.

Only now, she was trying to break into that very room. It deemed ridiculous, but this was what she had to do.

Using her sword, Crimson pierced a hole through the chocolate door.

Then, she repeated multiple times.

With every strike, painful memories flashed back into her mind.

Most of them involved Turbo.

Gritting her teeth together, she knew she _had_ to do this. Turbo had done enough damage already; she couldn't let him get away with any more.

Anyway, within a matter of seconds, the door had broken apart. There was now a huge gaping hole in the very center.

She charged through the hole, entering the tight room.

Immediately, she noticed the small dose of metal lying in the very center of the room.

Crimson eagerly approached the old metal chains and brushed her fingertips up against the cold medal.

She focused hard and glitched.

The glitch triggered throughout her body, but once it reached the metal, it stopped.

Crimson was confused. It should have transferred over the metal. That was the whole point of her idea.

"Maybe I'm just imagining things." She figured.

Then, she tried a second time.

It wasn't just her imagination.

There, where there should've been a chain split into two, stood a long sole chain without a single crack in it.

_'What's going on?'_ Crimson wondered.

She picked up and chain and carefully observed it.

_'Shoot._ _I should've noticed this before.'_

Right there, in the smack center of the metal chain, in big bold letters read, _'Glitch Proof'_.

She should have known.

'Well, I guess that plan isn't going to work… unless there is anywhere else I can find more metal…'

She tried brainstorming, but no helpful locations came to mind.

Then, an idea struck her.

_'Hey, maybe Vanellope will know…'_

But, she knew if she was going to consult Vanellope, there wasn't too much time left to spare.

With that, she dashed out of the Fungeon cell.

* * *

Moments later, Crimson arrived once again to the top of the rainbow taffy bridge, a place she was unfortunately too familiar with.

_'Here I go again...hopefully, this won't be a waste of time.'_

She tapped on the barrier.

Vanellope slightly jumped, but didn't even dare turn. Crimson assumed that she was probably afraid of who it was.

"Look, I'm not in the mood, Tur-"

"Vanellope, it's me, Crimson." She interrupted. Crimson had to make sure to get this done quickly. She didn't have any extra time to waste if the cy-bugs kept multiplying at the same rate as before.

"Crimson?" Vanellope questioned as she stood up. She spun around to face her unexpected visitor. "What are you doing here?"

"Vanellope, I need to know something and quick. I don't have time to explain."

Many questions of what it could be soared through Vanellope's head.

"I need to know a place where I can find a lot of metal. With enough, I'll be able to glitch the cy-bug numbers down. Do you know any place where I could look?"

Vanellope placed a finger under her chin and started to pace back and forth as she searched for an answer.

"Hmmmmmmmm…so, have you tried the Fungeon?"

Crimson nodded. "I looked there, but unfortunately the metal won't work; it's glitch proof."

"A-doy!" Vanellope told herself. She should've remembered that.

"Any other ideas?" Crimson desperately pleaded.

The glitch continued to brainstorm. "Hmmmmmm…" But, only drew a blank. "Sorry, Crimson. There's not really anywhere else here with a lot of metal. Pretty much everything here is made of candy. The Fungeon was your best bet."

Crimson looked down in disappointment. But not too long after, she returned her eye contact with the president.

"So, do you know what those things are or where they came from?"

She nodded. "Why yeah...Hero's..." She snickered at the next part. "...Duty. Those _'things'_ are called cy-bugs. They turn into whatever they eat." Vanellope simply explained.

"I saw that."

"But anyway, those things multiply like candy."

_'Well…at least that answers one question. But, I still don't know what to do about these cy-bugs. I mean I don't even have a clue where to find any useful metal and time is running out. Vanellope doesn't seem to know either. I guess I should get going and figure something else out.'_

Crimson turned around, starting to leave.

"Thank you, Vanellope for trying to help me out." She waved. "But, I guess I'd better go and figure out another idea since there's no metal."

Crimson was about to leave, but stopped once she heard Vanellope whisper something under her breath.

"Well…I do know one place with a decent amount of metal "...But, I doubt you want to or probably even can go there."

Crimson was willing to try anything.

"Where?"

Vanellope had hesitation in her voice. "Well…Hero's Duty."

"So, another game?" Crimson questioned.

Vanellope nodded in response.

"Yep, the same place where the cy-bugs came from. But, I'm not sure how you could get there even if you wanted to go there." She explained.

_'Well that's great...'_ Crimson thought sarcastically. One place finally had enough metal and of course, she couldn't go there because it was outside of the game.

Like always, she couldn't leave.

She was fed up.

"I've had enough of this." She replied as she banged her fist against the barrier.

Vanellope was startled by her friend's sudden reaction. "Huh?"

"I've had enough of this being locked inside the game! I can't take it anymore! I mean I can't see new people or new places! I can't even save the game!"

Then, she fell silent from the sudden outburst.

"Sorry to take it all out of you, Vanellope." She apologized. "It's just...I feel so worthless. I've trained for so many years...and it's still not good enough. The game is going to go down all because of me."

Vanellope knew Crimson was getting worked up and tried comforting her friend.

"You know, I actually do understand what you mean. I was in your position one time. But, don't put yourself down over it; you saw what happened after I became a racer? I'm sure it'll be the same for you."

Crimson calmed down as an idea came to her.

"Vanellope, I think I might be able to save the game." She murmured.

"Wait...huh? Was it something I said?"

"Something you said kind of gave me an idea." Crimson explained.

"Well, good luck then."

Crimson nodded.

"Thanks. I'm going to need it to pull it off." She replied as she dashed down the rainbow taffy bridge.

_'I need to get back to the racetrack. I don't have a lot time to do this.'_

She rushed back over to the infested racetrack.

She passed on by her unfortunate kart, crushed from the cy-bug attack. But, that wasn't her biggest concern right now.

She glared up at the portal that hovered above the Finish Line.

_'How the heck do I reach it?'_

Yes, she knew it would be dangerous. Also, she knew that there was a chance she would never be able to come back, being a glitch and all, but she was still going to try.

She glanced around at her surroundings.

While more cy-bugs emerged from the portal, some were actually flying back up near it.

She figured that maybe she could use that to her advantage.

_'If I can somehow get onto one of those cy-bugs flying near the portal, I can jump off and glitch to double the jump's distance and head straight into the portal.'_

It seemed a lot easier to think it over than to actually do, especially since cy-bugs were so unpredictable.

She had only one shot to do this, so she just had to pray that her plan would work.

As a group of three cy-bugs prepared their wings for flight, Crimson jumped onto the back of one of them.

The cy-bug noticed the extra weight, but didn't understand what the heck it was.

As the two other cy-bugs sprung off into the sky, the last cy-bug decided to just ignore the extra weight, regardless of what it was.

The last cy-bug spread its wings and flew up into the atmosphere as Crimson tightly clinged onto its back.

Fortunately for her, the two leading cy-bugs only barely missed the portal.

That was a good sign.

She could make it.

The last cy-bug followed the path of its friends, ignorant to the fact that a person was on its back and getting ready to jump.

The cy-bug was nearing the portal.

_'This is it.'_

She got ready to jump and glitch.

As the cy-bug grew close enough to the portal, she blasted off into the air.

Gravity was quick in trying to pull her down, but she glitched before it could pull her down too far.

She glitched once. Then again, but this time through the portal.

The sugar atmosphere quickly morphed into flashing blue numbers which transformed into the dark landscape of Hero's Duty.

"I made it." She muttered, nearly out of breath.


End file.
